Her Body's Plaything
by Blackhole1
Summary: The Artifact has fired and the Queen of Blades has been defeated. The war, however, is far from over. A 'Novelization' of Heart of the Swarm.
1. Chapter 1

_This Fic is a 'novelization' of the events in Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, or at least what I think Heart of the Swarm will be like. I hope you lot enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. It starts during the final mission of Wings of Liberty and will pick up immediately where that game ended. To write it, I used nothing but the currently published materials and whatever trailers were available at the time of writing._

_Warning: Massive Spoilers for Wings of Liberty._

_All characters, places, things, and what-nots are property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended._

**Laboratory, Castanar.**

Tiberias Cain has only been there for a few hours and he already hated the place. Experiments on Zerg always made the infested Terran uneasy, but the horrors in this laboratory certainly took the metaphorical cake. Mighty Ultralisks chained to the wall, only to be gunned down for sport or left for the abomination that rampaged throughout the facility, lesser beasts locked in tanks, raging inside their cages – an atrocity, if he would say so himself. Reflecting on his previous thoughts, he could not help but chuckle at his own hypocrisy. Terrans in his care rarely fared better. Still, at least he had the courtesy of providing a quick death to those too weak to be remade as a Zerg. What Raynor's Raiders did here was simply, well, inhuman, for lack of a better term.

Even that paled before what the Dominion had done, however. When Cain arrived at the facility with his small complement of Zerg, he found himself face-to-face with a Protoss-Zerg Hybrid.

_A Protoss-Zerg Hybrid_.

It shouldn't even be possible. The Overmind, the Queen of Blades and countless others tried to create one over the past few years. All failed save, apparently, the Dominion. How was this possible? How could _they_ succeed where beings infinitely their greater failed? Did the humans get help? If so, who would be crazy, or confident, enough to entrust such information to _them_? The fact that these…these _humans_, had the hubris to think they could succeed where the Swarm could not was insulting to him. He made a silent oath to shoot every Terran wearing a lab-coat in the kneecaps with his rifle. Fortunately for the victims, he was too late.

As the abomination stomped through the facility, Cain wondered if 'success' might be the wrong word to describe it. It seemed to be consumed by a mindless rage, killing Terrans, Protoss, and Zerg indiscriminately. He wanted to bring the creature in alive for Abathur, the Swarm's chief geneticist, to study it, but it quickly became clear that that was probably not an option. After an hour, the creature had slaughtered half his army and nearly killed him several times. The only way the infested Terran could stop it was by luring it out on a landing platform and pounding it with a barrage of bioplasmid from his Leviathan. "Well, there is no kill like overkill right?", he said to himself as he slowly walked towards what remained of the hybrid with Larry, his bodyguard Hunter-Killer, close behind him. They were terrified it might get up and try to rip their heads off again. He took samples of the few pieces of hybrid flesh not destroyed by the acidic coating of the Leviathan's projectiles and entered the now-empty facility.

Apart from what remained of the small band of Zerg he took with him, the laboratory was utterly devoid of life. At least the computers were still running on emergency power. Cain could use them to get as much information on that thing as he could. Izsha, an infested adjutant and decryption expert, could decode it and present it to the Queen. Hopefully some of it was information on how to kill that thing, other than with orbital fire. If the Dominion could create one, there was no telling how many more existed in other laboratories. Tiberias smiled as he downloaded the data. He might just have discovered the Dominion's new super-weapon before these under-evolved simians even had a chance to use it. He would not return to his Queen empty-handed.

**Primary Hive, Char**

"Hybrids." The Queen of Blades' heart skipped a beat when she saw the horror through the eyes of her minions. She knew her doom was coming, why she had known since the end of the Brood War four years ago, but she did not know who would bring it or how. Of all beings in creation that had the capacity to be a real threat to her or her Swarm, however, surely the Terrans were the most unlikely. They could not have created this, not on their own. Their technology, in spite of the advancements they have made in recent years, could never match the genetic perfection that was her Swarm. Their weak bodies and frail minds were shockingly easy to break, even with the smallest amount of pressure. The Terrans had nothing going for them save their can-do spirit and never-say-die attitude, one that was bordering on the side of madness in the case of some of them. Why they would continue to struggle against the inevitable was beyond her.

"And yet they keep going, no matter what you throw at them. Since they are getting closer to the primary hive, you could say it's working for them, too" The Queen instantly berated herself for that thought. Her forces were infinite and theirs dwindled by the moment. The Swarm's victory was inevitable. Then she realized the thought wasn't hers. She turned her attention inward, 'looking' at the pathetic remains of the young, human assassin imprisoned there. Her body's previous occupant was not happy with her current position. Neither would the Queen if their roles were reversed, but the Overmind must found little Sarah too, well, human for the task of leading the Swarm. At least that's what the Queen had always though. It did raise the question of why the Overmind didn't simply erase the insect completely, but who was she to doubt her own father? While the Queen sadistically enjoyed the wails of despair coming from her captive, usually when someone she knew from her human life was killed, the former human was becoming a pain very rapidly. She could make the Queen…feel things; weaknesses like regret, despair, and sorrow. Things that were unfitting for a Queen of the Swarm. In a way, she was the greatest threat the Queen faced, even more than the human or the Protoss. At least these foes could be killed. Sarah remained defiant, no matter what.

Now that Raynor was on her doorstep with the greatest army marshaled since the end of the Brood War, the little human trapped inside the Queen's mind had become louder than ever. A liability she couldn't afford. Her distractions have already cost the Swarm dearly. With the army nearing the Char's primary hive, the prisoner's confines began to weaken. It took more and more concentration on the Queen's part just to keep the Swarms coherent, and the Terrans took advantage of this. In spite of the Queen's demands to stop, saying they will both die in the unlikely event that the Terrans manage to win, the former ghost simply did not let up. She had passed beyond the fear of death, no longer caring about what happened to herself. In her mind, all that mattered was that the Queen of Blades died and that her love did not. If the price she would pay was her life, then so be it.

At last, the Raider/Dominion alliance reached the primary hive and began to dig in. The Queen of Blades was puzzled. The Terrans should be pushing, not entrenching. She could replace her forces indefinitely, while the humans couldn't. If they remained where they were, the humans would die and they knew it. But then, they showed her their ace-in-the-hole: the Xel-Naga artifact she was seeking all along. How kind of them to bring it to her. All she had to do now was order her Swarm to overrun the Terrans and…

A shockwave of blue light blanketed the area. The Zerg close to the artifact were incinerated where they stood. Even the Queen, sitting in a structure she used as a throne room, could feel the psychic backlash. What did the Terrans do? Then, she realized what the Terrans were planning all along. As they charged up the artifact, all the pieces fell into place. They never intended to push on the hive. They didn't have to. If a small pulse like that could do so much damage, who knows what it could do fully charged. Its pulse would probably destroy the primary hive, killing every Zerg in and around it, including _her_. For the first time in years, she feared for her life. She felt the human's presence in her head again. The constant stream of sobbing and woe had…stopped. Stopped, to be replaced by hope.

The Queen did not like this idea very much and didn't want to be reminded of her (potentially) imminent defeat. She moved to the one place where she felt she was free of Kerrigan's distractions: the thick of battle. There, she'd find Raynor and end him once and for all.

As she charged the human lines with her broods, she was greeted by a hailstorm of gunfire, lasers, shells, and missiles. The Queen was, by far, the most dangerous entity in the horde and they knew it. She lashed out with every weapon at her disposal, slaughtering marines with her wings, sinking her claws in the flesh of her enemies, shredding infantry with her storms and even ripping entire battlecruisers in half. But even as their comrades fell, the humans fought on with even greater fervor. Raynor himself had taken the field, bellowing orders and encouragement as loud as his lungs would let him. It would not help him one little bit.

She was the Queen of Blades.

She was perfection made flesh.

She was a creature of martial devastation, psychic fury, and the keenest intellect.

She…would…NOT…be…stopped. Not by him, not by anyone!

But she was not invincible. Eventually the sheer volume of fire the Terrans threw at her was too much, even for her. Despite the fact that she could survive attacks would have shredded a human a thousand times over, she had to retreat. Back in her hive, recovering from her wounds, she found Sarah, 'looking' at her with a grin that would have moved from ear to ear if she had a face to grin with. The Queen couldn't stay here. The former ghost's presence became less tolerable by the minute as the captive tried harder and harder to break out of her prison. It would be biologically impossible, thanks to the Overmind's constraints, but she tried anyhow, hoping to reach out to the attackers and help in any way she could. If nothing else, it would distract the Queen further, giving the humans a better chance.

Eventually the Queen could not tolerate the invader's presence any longer and sallied forth once again. In spite of the devastation she wrought, the humans showed no sign of letting up. Once again, she was forced back to lick her wounds. Another failed assault later, and her anger started to get the better of her. Even Sarah's prison started to crack, and she was able to reach out to her beloved and offer him some form of encouragement. All she managed to get out was "Don't give up" before she was slammed back in her 'cage' by the enraged Queen, but it was enough. By now, the artifact was glowing like a star, becoming almost too painful to look at. And then, it fired.

The Queen could hear the screams of her dying broods as she was sitting in her throne room. An instant later, the pulse struck her as well.

She screamed as she felt her carapace burn off her body.

She screamed as Sarah Kerrigan's prison shattered.

She screamed as she and her broods around her were sent into oblivion.

The Queen of Blades was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Laboratory, Castanar**

Tiberias Cain woke up feeling like something just drilled a hole through his skull. The fact that Larry the Hunter-Killer tried to wake him up by smacking his head with its tail didn't help either. What happened? Last thing he remembered was downloading data, followed something that sounded like the screams of the damned. Why did it get so quiet in his head all of a sudden? Why were the Zerglings chewing on his leg? The Queen doesn't tolerate…

The Queen…

For the first time since his rebirth into the Swarm, she wasn't watching over his shoulder. That scream…it was hers. The Queen of Blades was…gone…

He kicked the offending zerglings away and franticly searched the room, as if the Queen would be hiding behind a table. After realizing the folly of his actions and getting a confused look from Larry, he stopped and started to think.

How…how could this happen? There were billions of Zerg on Char, the Terrans couldn't have killed them all? Or could they…

Char…he had to get back to Char. He had to find out what happened. Since no one forbade him from doing so, it must be alright…right? No, it wasn't. If the queen was safe, she would have confirmed his course, or given some acknowledgement of his existence at the very least.

For the first time in his life as a Zerg, he felt alone. Okay, maybe he's not completely alone. At least Larry was still around. The Queen had always been like a mother to him and the other Zerg. A psychotic, unappeasable madwoman of a mother, the kind that would have her children taken away by child services almost immediately, but still someone to give them a purpose. Without that purpose, what were they? She was still better than the Protoss, who would vaporize him on the spot, or the Terrans, who'd…Well, this facility was stuffed with reasons for him not to be captured by the Terrans.

Oh, the download finished during his little nap. Good, maybe nothing is wrong and he'll just report back to the Queen. "Maybe Emperor Mengsk will invite me for a spot of tea afterwards while we discuss how to make starships out of chocolate." He thought to himself. Humor was always a good way to clear the grey mass in case something unexpected happened. Too bad it was generally lost upon most of the other Zerg. With a clear head and a new mission, he grabbed his data and his rifle and set off towards the leviathan's landing platform. Larry, as always followed close by.

Unfortunately, the band of Zerg he brought with him no longer seemed to respond to his orders. Worse, it seemed they had gone completely feral. Maybe they finally got sick of his sarcasm and decided it was time for him to go. This explanation, however ridiculous, would still be preferable to accepting that the Queen of Blades was dead, or somehow weakened to the point where she couldn't control them anymore. Maybe if he used his own psychic abilities, he could control some of them. Infestation does increase psionic sensitivity by a significant margin, after all. Unfortunately it doesn't help much if you had the psychic potential of a dead dog in your human life. Best he could do was scramble a small group of zerglings. It struck Cain that he might not be able to control the leviathan on his own. He'd worry about that later. First priority: he and Larry off this infernal laboratory without being eaten. That would be a good start.

**Ruins of the Primary Hive, Char**

Raynor walked past the burned-out remains of the primary hive, the only evidence that there ever was a Zerg presence here to begin with. The artifact certainly did its job. Jim Raynor sent his men to patrol the area and scour it of any Zerg they could find. Thus far, they had all come up empty handed. The artifact still gave him the creeps, but at least it had managed to kill every Zerg in the area. Well, almost. He looked down at the woman peacefully sleeping in his arms. It was hard to believe that this frail, young girl was the scourge of the sector only an hour ago. Part of him wondered if she still was. She didn't look strong enough to harm anyone, but appearances… He chastised himself for the thought. The look in her eyes when they first saw each other again, convinced him that she was not the Queen of Blades. Not anymore. It wasn't something he could describe, or ever explain to another person, but he knew that the woman in his arms was not the Zerg he swore to kill four years ago.

Was it worth it? All the misery, all the death and destruction, all the guilt and hardship, was it worth it? Thousands must have died in the final push. Not to mention Tychus. Was it all really worth it?

How could he even doubt that! Mengsk was reeling on his throne. The evidence he showed the people and the fact that HE, Public Enemy Number One, terrorist, rebel, and pirate stopped the Zerg threat would be more than enough to force that tyrannical bastard off his seat. It was all worth it. By God, it was all worth it.

The rebel leader walked back to Warfield's base camp. The old general met him near the edge, anxious to see the result of the artifact. He saw the woman in Jim's arms, let out a soft smile and said: "Well Raynor, if I didn't know better, I'd never believe you if you told me who she was. Funny how fast things can change." Raynor could not help but smile in return. It was all so hard to believe.. He half expected to wake up in the Hyperion's cantina next to a bottle of booze and a very annoyed Matt Horner.

No, this was real. More real than anything in his life had ever been. He was sure of it.

He was knocked out of his dream-like trance by the sound of de-cloaking ghosts raising their weapons. "That's strange, I don't remember seeing any Dominion ghosts on Char." Before he could fully come to his senses, a blonde female one moved towards him and stuck a syringe in Kerrigan's body.

"Just a sedative Jim. Don't want her running around when we're taking her to Korhal, now do we?" she said in an unnervingly playful tone, as if it was all a game to her.

"Nova, what did you just do? What's going on?" He looked at Warfield, but he was just as surprised as Raynor was by this turn of events, though better at hiding it.

"I think my boss should be the one explaining this." The ghost tapped a few buttons on her communicator and a familiar voice spoke from it.

"James Raynor, congratulations on your victory." Prince Valerian's voice was carried by a mockery so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"Junior, what's going on?" The commander bellowed. "Why are you taking Kerrigan to Korhal? She isn't a threat to anyone anymore."

"I know."

"Then why…"

"Do you really think I can just let you walk away with her, after everything that happened? What is the point of being heir to a throne if there is no throne left to inherit? I intend on putting her on trial and make quite a spectacle of it." His voice was practically brimming with anticipation.

"She'll be killed, 'Your Highness', for crimes we can't hold her responsible for. What about that talk about being a better emperor?"

"I will be a better emperor. My father threw away a brilliant opportunity when he tried to kill the Queen of Blades. Now it's my turn. What do you think the people will think of me when I style myself as the victorious warrior prince that struck down the greatest threat the sector has ever known? The people will love me. There will be no need for me to rule through fear. My father would become a footnote and the Dominion would be free. Besides, my father isn't that young anymore. I have time on my side."

"Time's on no one's side, Valerian," Raynor bellowed, barely able to contain his rage "Do you have any idea what you are doing?"

A sigh followed. "Are you going to tell me that we cannot kill her? That a great doomy doom of doom is approaching and she is the only one who can stop it?" If mockery could be charted, that last sentence would have fallen right off it. "What is this, badly written fan fiction?!"

Raynor wanted to tell him about the Ihan crystal, about Zeratul's warning, but he realized it was pointless. Valerian would not believe him and Raynor would just sound like a raving lunatic. There was nothing he could do. Dammit, he should have seen this coming. Like father, like son.

"Agent X41822N, would you kindly arrest the rebel commander? Warfield, order your men to round up the remaining Raiders."

That was the final straw for the aging general. Raynor may be far from perfect but he had done more for mankind than anyone else Warfield knew. Consequences be damned, he would NOT betray the man who saved his life and that of his men on more times than he could count.

"Listen to me pup," He bellowed with a voice that would make an ultralisk soil itself. "this man did more for the Dominion, hell, for everyone in the sector, than the rest of us put together. If he says Kerrigan should live, then she'll live. I trust him with that."

"You disappoint me, General. I hoped you'd be able to see the bigger picture. Agent X41822N, arrest General Warfield too, along with anyone who sides with the Raiders. I'll send someone to convert his camp into a proper prison facility." The communicator powered down. The prince was gone.

Raynor felt his heart shatter. Losing Kerrigan once to Mengsk senior was bad enough, but now one of junior's pet ghosts took her away from him too. In truth, he fully expected the Prince to turn on him. He just didn't realize it would be this soon. The transport carrying his beloved disappeared into the sky, carrying with it the only hope the sector had to halt the coming storm. If Zeratul was right, Valerian just doomed all creation to one-up his father and earn himself a good approval rating. Maybe Kerrigan would escape? Maybe someone might break her free? Zeratul? Even if he knew about this, would he show up in time? The rebel commander's hopes sank deeper by the second.

As Nova and the remaining ghosts escorted them back to camp, the last shred of hope drained from his boots. The Dominion had rounded up what remained of the Raiders. Even Matt. They must have gotten the Hyperion too.

He had failed them. He offered them hope, he offered them freedom, and in return for their sacrifices, all they got was another cage. He looked into the distance as the remains of a hive collapsed under its own weight. Such a fitting metaphor for his Raiders.

Funny how fast things can change, indeed.

**Laboratory, Castanar**

An hour and a pile of dead feral Zerg later, Tai and Larry arrived at their landing pad with a small band of zerglings. While controlling Zerg became easier with practice, it was unlikely that a weak psychic like Cain would be able command more Zerg than the common overlord. Still, it was enough for now. Nevertheless, he needed to get to Char and find the Queen, or anyone for that matter. There was no way in hell he could unite the broods himself.

The infested Terran let out a sigh of relief. At least the leviathan was still alive. Most other Zerg had gone feral and had tried to eat him, each other, or what little remained of the facility. Leviathans were relatively docile by nature, which proved to be their saving grace. Tai and Larry entered the massive bowels of the creature, leaving the zerglings behind. He worried that he would need all his concentration to command the massive war-beast and there was no way of knowing what the zerglings would do once he loosened his grip over them. At least now, all they could do is chew on the rivets. If that brought the structure down, well, he had seen enough of that forsaken lab to last a lifetime. He commanded the leviathan to return home and to his surprise, the creature listened. Hopefully, they weren't too late.

_A/N Oh good lord you people are reading this? Reviews too? You lot just made my day._

_Anyway, my first actual dialogue. How do you lot think it turned out? Please leave a review. You cannot imagine how satisfying a great complement is. It's like drugs, except it's legal!_


	3. Chapter 3

**Char, High Orbit**

Traveling through the cold, dark void between planets is hard, even for a Zerg. Warp travel or no, a journey between planets took quite a while. As a result, the ancient Overmind assimilated a species that 'found' the answer: the Behemoths. These space-borne beasts, from which the leviathans were evolved, possessed a thick, hard, and isolating shell of carapace. Not only would it protect the creatures, and anything it's carrying, from attackers, it also allowed the maintenance of a high pressure environment inside the creature, such as the bubble of air keeping Tai and Larry alive.

The issue of heat was another problem that needed to be solved. Any object in interplanetary space would emit heat, causing said object to freeze unless a solution was found. In the case of the leviathans and the behemoths, the carapace acted as insulation, preventing the creature and its occupants from turning into Zerg popsicles. As an added bonus, the lack of thermal emissions made the enormous beasts nearly invisible to the long-range sensors of the Terrans. This form of limited stealth, while useless when the Zerg were in visual range, was used to great effect during the invasions of the Second Great War. Zerg could land on a planet and set up small hives before the defenders even knew they were there.

Trying to track an object in space, even something as big as a leviathan, is hard.

Trying to track an object without emissions is extremely difficult.

Trying to track such an object through a massive field of smoldering Dominion wreckage was simply impossible.

Tiberias decided to take it slow to see if there was anything still worth getting on this miserable ball of ash, using the cover of stealth to his advantage. Much of the planet was already thoroughly bombarded by what remained of the Dominion fleet, but some of the underground lairs seemed to have survived, even if much of the nydus network did not. He focused the leviathan's keen senses on the remains of the primary hive. Once, it was a field of spires and arches, where legions of Zerg of all shapes and sizes skittered and flew. If sanctity meant anything to a Zerg, this place would have been considered hallowed ground. Now, it was a lifeless wasteland, save for the humans who were desecrating it with their machines and buildings. At the center of the camp stood an ominous glowing pillar. What it was, Tai didn't want to know. His gut told him it was somehow related to all this devastation. Given the track record of Dominion commanders, it seemed unlikely that they could have beaten the Swarm with nothing more than a heap of men and a nice, clean time-table. It wasn't unthinkable that that _thing_ was their trump card.

He turned his attention to the skies. Dominion battlecruisers patrolled their among the remains of the ships that weren't lucky enough to avoid the wrath of the spore cannon batteries scattered about the planet. Cain smiled. The spore cannon was his idea. While Abathur was usually responsible for new breeds of Zerg, he often lacked the creativity that infested Terrans possessed. Given the wounds on the enemy's hulls, the cannons performed better than he expected. Still, it wasn't good enough. Nobody expected the Terrans would be willing to risk so much in an invasion. The invaders did manage to get through in the end, in spite of their losses, thanks to their sheer numbers. The enormous infested platform that was used as a staging ground for the flyers was now a smoking ruin, somehow still leaking enough oxygen to sustain the many fires dotting its surface. The Terrans must have destroyed it during or after their invasion to clean up the skies. The leviathan could not help but feel sorrow. The platform had been its nest and home for most of its life. Cain solemnly swore that he would avenge every last Zerg killed here in an attempt to comfort the creature and, to some extent, himself.

Among the many things floating through the sky, one stood out in particular. A Behemoth class battlecruiser, larger and older looking than its counterparts. In spite of its lack of markings, Tai knew exactly which ship it was: The Hyperion, flagship of Raynor's Raiders. It all made sense now. If there was anyone who could beat them, it would be him. Well, anyone? He wasn't sure if Raynor could be referred to as a person. Although he had never fought the Raiders in person, the fact that the Queen of Blades saw their commander as one of the greatest threats the Swarm faced was enough. Whenever the two met, or even when his name was mentioned, something seemed to change inside the Queen. Feelings she had long abandoned would swell up. Distractions that never bothered her, suddenly consumed every thought she had. In spite of all the trouble he was causing, for some reason, she could never bring herself to kill him. No one else was able to influence the Queen in such a fashion, not even the mightiest of the Protoss high templar. Yet, Raynor wasn't a psychic, at least not in any way the Zerg could detect. It could have been love, although it seemed unlikely that such a defunct emotion could still have such an impact on her. Tai wondered if the commander wasn't some sort of demon created to stop humanity from taking its rightful within the Swarm. If he ever got his hands on the rebel leader, he would find out what terrible secret weapon he had been using against them and figure out a way to turn it against the humans.

However, there are other, more pressing, worries at the moment. Jim Raynor would have to wait.

Cain checked the psychic emanations coming from the planet. What was usually a beautiful, unified chorus had become a soft but maddening cacophony of rage, pain, and chaos. Whatever coherence the Swarms once had died with their Queen. A few stronger voices stood out: various broodmothers trying to keep their broken hives safe from the Terran assaults, along with a handful of human ghosts, mostly centered around the base built on top of the primary hive. None of them would have the raw power needed to reunite the broods the way the Queen of Blades could, although one of them came close. Unless that Terran could be 'persuaded' to join them, assuming she'd survive, he did not think chasing after ghosts was wise at this point in time.

Tai didn't understand. Surely the Queen must have expected the possibility of something like this happening? The entire sector wanted her dead. It would have been prudent to create an heir of sorts, or at the very least a back-up plan, just in case. Then again, any creature powerful enough to replace her would have been able to challenge her too, undermining the unity of the Zerg. Anyhow, if the Queen had prepared for this in any way, the infested adjutant Izsha would know. The Queen of Blades stored many of her memories within the construct. Hopefully one of them contained a way out of this mess. He searched the planet for signs of her, and found them in a subterranean hive surrounded by Terran soldiers and feral Zerg.

At least he and Larry didn't have to fight them all on their own. The leviathan touched down near a tunnel entrance, a short distance from the hive.

As Larry and Cain jumped out of their leviathan's enormous maw, the sheer scope devastation truly hit the two Zerg. Zerg normally do not experience emotions other than satisfaction at the sight of a fallen foe, or tranquil fury at the sight of a living one. Hate and anger were emotions that impeded rational thought and were largely suppressed by controlling overlords. When they did boil up, it was usually done to send the warriors into a mindless rage during a battle. Sometimes, these emotions show up on their own if the controller have been killed. The sight of the rotten remains of a battered hive collapse in front of them pained the two in ways they didn't even think was possible. God help any Terran that barred their way.

The tunnel was narrow and cramped, which worked to the advantage of the two elite Zerg. Horribly outnumbering your opponent means little in such close quarters. Also, larger units would not be able to pass through, leaving their smaller comrades without support.

Larry spotted a firebat ahead of them. An instant later, said firebat's head exploded thanks to a well-aimed armor piercing spine. A group of marines tried to come to their fallen comrade's aid, only to be cut down by a hail of spines fired from Tai's modified C-14 Impaler. Since the Zerg had trouble making metal bullets, the rifle fired shaped pieces of bone and carapace at its targets. The recoil was immense and the accuracy non-existent, even with the infested Terran's enhanced strength and ability, but it didn't matter here. At point-black range, he simply couldn't miss. The accuracy issue didn't bother Tiberias Cain that much in general; he preferred close combat anyway. He sank one of his claws into the visor of a marine (un)lucky enough to survive his initial assault, and signaled Larry to move on.

The two continued on, tearing their way through anyone and anything that dared to bar their way, human or feral Zerg. A casual observer might mistake their progress for a rage-driven slaughter, but anyone who really knew the Swarm would tell you that this wasn't the case. Zerg, being telepathically linked, can instinctively coordinate their attacks with their fellows; assuming there is a connection, usually in the form of a queen or overlord. Tai and Larry have been doing this for years. They didn't need a third to work together. Armed with the knowledge acquired from the countless generations before them and millennia of genetic engineering, the pair could move and act like a single being, cutting down their enemies with ease.

As they neared the hive, a marauder tried to take the duo down with his grenades. He took aim with his launcher, pulled the trigger and…nothing. Was it a suit malfunction? Before he realized that this happened because his arm was sliced off, he was torn apart. Tai turned to his savior. It was a large, worm-like creature, with several different limbs and a bunch of green fluid-filled sacks on its back. It didn't look like a powerful warrior, but thankfully for him, killing was not its function. Their savior was Abathur, chief geneticist of the Swarm.

"I did not expect you so soon, Tiberias Cain. Not after what happened to our Queen" it spoke, in a cold, near emotionless voice.

"The Queen is the reason I'm here. I was hoping Izsha would have some back-up plan to deal with the rather sudden power vacuum."

The creature was in deep thought. "I do not recall her Majesty ever speaking of such matters. Given her strength, it is unlikely she believed anyone could best her in the foreseeable future. But if there is, there would be a strong possibility that Izsha would know."

"If there isn't I'm sure Izsha would be able concocted a solution herself. Maybe you could grow a new Queen from scratch for us?" Tai knew something like that is next to impossible, but it's worth asking. Projects trying to create a psychic creature out of nothing have always failed thus far.

"Even if such a thing is possible at all, it would be well beyond my capabilities."

"And here I thought you could make anything…"

"I am no god, Tiberias Cain. You should be able to understand…" It let out a sigh. "That was that thing Terrans call sarcasm, was it not?" Abathur had a brilliant mind, but trying to have a proper conversation was still sometimes a challenge. How such a genius could have trouble understanding sarcasm was beyond Tai's ability to understand.

"We should go before more Terrans arrive." He turned to Larry, gleefully hacking away at a poor marine. "Larry, stop playing with your food!" The Hunter-Killer let out a disappointed whine before putting the human out of its misery and following its fellow Zerg.

The rest the hive was strangely empty. The Terrans must have cleared out, possibly to get more reinforcements. They found Izsha in stand-by mode near the hive's center. In spite of the many alterations the Queen of Blades performed on her cybernetic assistant, she still could not remain active without a power source, such as a hive, to power her mechanical circuitry. They carefully disconnected Izsha from the rotting mass of the dying hive and brought her back to the leviathan.

Hopefully she wasn't too damaged.

Hopefully the leviathan could power her.

Hopefully she would have the answer they were looking for.

It seemed like hope was all the Zerg had right now.


	4. Chapter 4

**Char, high orbit**

"Will she live, Tiberias? How long will you require?"

"Ten minutes less than when you asked me the last time, Abathur. Now stop pestering me!"

Under Cain's orders, the leviathan flew away from the Zerg base of operations as fast as it could. In the safety of deep space, the Dominion would not be able to find them, allowing him to fix the infested adjutant without being interrupted. Well, except by Abathur, of course.

A crackle of electricity went through Izsha's mechanical parts. "Ah, finally." The adjutant slowly arose and looked at her new surroundings. She noticed that she wasn't on Char anymore. Turning to the two Zerg in front of her, she asked: "Where are we?"

"Deep space, away from the humans. We are safe here, at least for the moment." Cain responded.

Izsha went through her most recent memories: the invasion, the death of the Queen of Blades, the Terran occupation. They were not pleasant ones.

"I suspect that you retrieved me for a good reason. It would have been foolhardy to return to Char without one while our planet is being occupied by the Dominion." She mused aloud. The adjutant narrowed her eyes. "You were hoping that I would have a way to fix this mess, that the Queen left me with a back-up plan in the event of an invasion of this scale. If you are, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you."

"There must be something we can do." Tai spoke, hoping to save the rapidly deteriorating mood in the room. "Perhaps we could enhance one of the broodmothers to take the Queen's place, or create another Queen or…"

Izsha motioned him to stop and closed her eyes, deep in thought. "Save your breath. I believe there is a solution. The humans have been sending many transmissions proclaiming our defeat. They seem to believe the Swarm is broken and are quite elated about that."

"How could they not be…" Tai grumbled, his voice thick with disgust.

"However, there is one transmission you might find interesting. It was a heavily encoded situation report from a battlecruiser that left shortly after the final battle. It speaks of a 'former queen' having been placed in stasis. It is probable that they are referring to…"

"Our Queen…She's still alive!" Cain interrupted, unable to contain his shock.

"Impossible! It must be a ruse, or an imposter. I heard her dying screams. It is simply impossible." Abathur bellowed in an uncharacteristic outburst of emotion.

"We all have, Abathur, but apparently someone forgot to tell the Terrans. Unless you have a better idea, I suggest we break her out as soon as possible. Do you know where she is being held, Izsha, or why they are keeping her alive in the first place?"

"The transmission originated from a world called Elysium III." The adjutant answered. "As for the reason, other human transmissions speak of enacting justice. It is probable that they will try her in court."

"Then your foolish and rash rescue mission is unnecessary." Said Abathur, having put a lid on his anger. "The Queen has always acted for the good of the Swarm. Surely the Terrans would understand that."

"Somehow I don't think the humans will see things the way we do. They have always objected violently to our attempts to assimilate them into the Swarm. If she goes to trial, I'm pretty sure they're going to kill her." With a psychic command, Tai ordered the leviathan to fly to Elysium.

"Do you have a plan of action for when we get there? We know nothing of the defenses the humans may have erected."

Izsha answered "Elysium III is a dead world in a distant system, Abathur. The air is barely breathable to humans and the ground infertile and devoid of resources. There are no Terran colonies, apart from a small weapon storage facility. Few even know the planet exists."

"So the Queen is being held in a shack in the middle of nowhere?" Tiberias could hardly believe it. "Wouldn't that make it really easy for her to escape? It almost sounds like a trap."

"The Swarm has no known allies, and it is likely that the humans did not believe we would be able to decode their transmissions to organize a rescue mission on our own. Seeking her psionically would be next to impossible, even if we had the means to do so. A few dampeners would be enough to make her untraceable. If she is being held in stasis, escaping on her own would also be impossible. The Terran's course of action is not entirely unjustified, given their limited understanding of our intellect."

"Then we'll use that to our advantage. Izsha, get our leviathan to the edge of the system. I want to make sure we're not running into a trap. That would be unpleasant. Abathur, there are still some dormant zerglings in the hold. Help me revive them."

As Tai walked towards the birthing chamber, he wondered what exactly the transmission meant with 'former queen'.

**Edge of the Elysium system**

"Scanning. One battlecruiser detected on the far side of the planet. Minotaur class. Markings indicate Dominion affiliation." Izsha spoke in a robotic voice. If it wasn't for tendencies like these, one could forget part of her was ever an adjutant at all.

"It's a trap!"

"It's one battlecruiser, Abathur." Cain replied. "We have a Leviathan. What's on the surface?"

"Sensors detect a small base. Thermal imaging suggests no more than two dozen human bio-signatures within the structure. Electrical imaging suggests a weapons storage facility."

"So they're well armed?"

"Negative, commander." Tai liked being called that. Sure he wasn't officially her commander, but it made him feel important. Bless Izsha for her adjutant tendencies. A pity they only popped up occasionally during briefings. "Archives state these are leftover weapons and armor from the ghost program. It is improbable that the defenders would be able to use them, or know how to if they could."

"Ghosts?"

"Sensors indicate only one psionic signature with a PI above two, but it's exact nature is impossible to determine due to the inhibitors surrounding it. It is likely that this is the place where the Queen of Blades is being held."

"What's on the battlecruiser?"

"Several companies of orbital drop infantry."

Cain winced. They could make life very miserable for him if they were able to deploy. "Okay, here's our plan. Larry, me, and the zerglings are going to drop via sacs just south of the Terrans. Meanwhile, you two guide the leviathan into the battlecruiser and blindside it. Without support, the defenders will be easy pickings and the Queen will be freed." The leviathan roared with anticipation. It seemed most eager to avenge the invasion of Char.

"Sounds almost too easy. I pray you are right about this." Abathur chimed in.

"Hey, what could possibly go wrong?"

"The universe often finds a way to make things go wrong about two minutes after someone says that…"

Using a combination of natural telekinesis and pneumatized carapace, the massive beast surged forward. The leviathan had only one thought on its mind: Kill. Izsha guided the creature along a path around the planet, using Elysium's gravity to sling-shot right into the enemy vessel. Normally a leviathan would not have the speed to ambush a battlecruiser before it could bring its weapons online. This leviathan, however, had a little help from the planet. The creature slammed into the Terran vessel, ripping it apart with strikes from its tentacles and its gaping, vertical maw, shrugging off laser fire in a fit of blind rage. Mercy was utterly beyond this creature. Within minutes, the ship was torn to ribbons. The attack was so fast that the humans didn't even have a chance to send a distress signal. The base was now vulnerable.

The sacs, released before the attack, streamed through the atmosphere. Tai liked the warm, cramped, creep-filled pod. It reminded him of the chrysalis he resided in when he has being assimilated. Every time the sac was burst open by the force of the landing, he felt revitalized and reborn, ready to lay waste to all those who would dare oppose the Swarm.

The pods landed, spilling their lethal cargo of genetically perfected creatures: a hunter-killer, an infested Terran, and twenty-four zerglings, one for every person in the base. Zerg efficiency at its finest. Tai checked his surroundings. It was night, but the stars were bright enough for the Zerg to see well. Nothing but hills, dirt and the occasional bush, as far as the eye could see. The air was perfectly breathable to him, but then again, he was a Zerg. Some rules don't apply. Why anyone would name this pisshole after the ancient Roman equivalent of Heaven, he'd never know. Tiberias was noticing how suitable this place was for an ambush when he heard the remains of the Dominion battlecruiser slam into the ground behind him.

"Tiberias, the Terrans are moving out, probably to check for survivors. They will pass by your location in a few minutes." Izsha warned.

Well that's convenient.

"How many?"

"About twenty strong, all marines, along with a vehicle. Three remained behind, the vehicle seems unarmed."

Excellent. If they could take these men out in the open, the base would be theirs. He had most of the zerglings burrow on one side of the road, while he and Larry hid behind a hill on the other side. The remainder of the zerglings were held back to cut off the humans' escape. Clean, simple, no survivors. Just the way Tiberias Cain liked it.

The Terrans moved up the road towards the crash-site, unaware of the presence of the Zerg. There had to be a way to stop them in order to properly close the trap. The truck, a make-shift ambulance, was the key. Larry took aim and, with a single well-aimed shot, took out the driver. One of the Terrans, seemingly their leader, walked over, probably to grumble at the driver for stopping seemingly without reason. A perfect sniping opportunity. Larry took another shot and a spine slammed straight into the head of the lead human. This time, however, his fellows noticed the culprit and returned fire while screaming various profanities at the top of their lungs. Amateurs. They wouldn't have been able to hit a building even if they were standing inside of it. The hill would provide plenty of cover from the Terrans' poorly aimed shooting.

Tai returned fire. He knew that he wouldn't be able to hit any of them from this distance, but it didn't matter. As the humans moved closer in order to get a better shot, they didn't notice the zerglings moving behind them under Cain's psychic direction. At least half of humans probably never knew how much trouble they were in until the creatures' claws sank into their bodies. Two of the marines tried to run, only to be slaughtered by the Zerg vanguard that moved in to cut off their escape. Cain was disappointed. This was almost too easy.

On to the base. If the Terrans had any sense, they would be on their guard. A direct assault would be unwise. Their truck was still intact, maybe he could…Nah, they're not that stupid. Oh, what did it matter, it was worth a shot. Cain ordered Larry and a few zerglings into the back. Maybe this tired old movie cliché would actually work. He got in the driver's seat and turned the truck around.

As they drove to the facility, they were greeted by the three soldiers. One of them, noticing the truck, dropped his weapon and ran towards them. Good thing it was dark.

"Back already? I thought the crash was further away. Oh hell…You two, don't just stand there! Move to the back and unload the wounded, at the double! Peh, bloody resoc's, gotta tell them everything. One of these days, they're gonna forget how to breath!"

"Hey Sarge, I think we have a little Zerg problem." One of them said, in a placid tone that could only be produced by someone neurally resocialized.

"Boy, you always think there's a Zerg problem. What is it now?"

"One of them big Hydralisk thingies is looking at me. I think he wants to give me a hug."

"W-what?" The sergeant turned to Tai, only now realizing he wasn't human. Before the marine could reach for his side arm, he was felled by a volley of shells from the infested Terran's rifle. The other two were cut down in a similar fashion.

"No human Bio-signatures remaining. Well done. Good thing the Terrans tried to rescue their fellows wasn't it?" Izsha said.

"I knew they would. All part of the plan."

"Of course Tiberias. Of course." Tai couldn't help but growl. Did the adjutant just mock him? Ah, what did it matter? The Queen of Blades needed to be freed from her prison. She's probably impatiently waiting to take command of her Swarm again, as humble as it was now. No sense in keeping her waiting.


	5. Chapter 5

**Elysium**

As Tiberias Cain walked through the facility with Larry in tow, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. Everything had just been a little too easy. He fully expected someone to jump out of a corner with a gun at every turn.

"Izsha, run another scan."

"As I said the last three times, there are no biosignatures whatsoever save yours and that of our target. No drones, no ghosts, no Dark Templar, nothing. Stop being paranoid. It's unhealthy, even for you. We will land next to the front gate." Great, first she was mocking him, now she's mothering him too. He should find and infest a technician to take a look at her when this is over. "Go through the door next to the armory. That's the source of the psi-signature."

They entered a large room filled with machinery. In the center stood a large, covered container of sorts with a human-sized creature lying within. It looked like a cryogenic pod. Next to it stood a strange contraption that gave Tai an enormous headache when he looked at it. Larry, apparently feeling it too, let out an enraged hiss and fired a volley of spines into the offending machine. As the machine died, the headache faded. It must have been the inhibitor Izsha talked about.

Tai removed the cover of the container to see who, or what was inside. What he saw was, well, unexpected. Within lay a young woman, one with shocking resemblance to the Queen. The woman even felt like her. This couldn't possibly be…no, it really was her. Or more accurately what was left of her. Her wings and carapace were completely gone, burned off without a trace. Her skin had an pale complexion, rather than the greenish-brown he was familiar with. Her claws, once sharp enough to cut through CMC power armor, were reduced to pitiful little things, unable to slice a piece of paper, let alone be used as a weapon. The harsh, imposing glow in her eyes, something that seemed to intimidate the Terrans more than anything, was gone. She looked…soft, vulnerable, and, well, human.

The thought sickened him. Capturing, even torturing their Queen was to be expected, given the short-sighted nature of most Terrans. Turning her into this weak, fragile mockery of her former self was a travesty he simply could not abide. If it weren't for the remains of her nerve cords, one would never have guessed that she had ever been one of the Zerg. The humans should consider themselves lucky they were already dead. Tai would have personally skinned the survivors alive before throwing them to Larry as breakfast. Anyhow, he came all this way to rescue her. Might as well see it through. The damage to her body was something Abathur would have no trouble fixing, but no one could undergo a transformation like that and still be the same, personality wise. With Izsha's guidance, Cain started the revival protocols from a nearby console and prayed she was still the Queen he remembered.

Sarah awoke, her head feeling like the night after shore-leave. To her, the past four years seemed like being stuck in a long and very unpleasant dream. It felt as if someone took control of her body, made her Queen of the freaking Zerg and butchered her friends. Arcturus had gone evil, crowned himself Emperor of the Dominion, and Jim led a rag-tag band of misfits to fight him. Bah, it was just a silly dream. Something straight out of a bad novel. One that she and Jim could have a laugh about later.

She couldn't remember being brought here. She also didn't know where here was. Strange. The last thing she did remember was being carried around by Jim, though she did not know why. Kerrigan sat up. Maybe a cold shower would clear her mind. She noticed two strange figures standing near a console, looking at her. One was vaguely human, except he had glowing eyes, a suit of seemingly skin-tight organic armor and a series of black segmented spine-like tendrils sticking out of his head. Was he wearing a new hostile environment suit? And the other, it looked like an overgrown Zerg hydralisk. Wait, it was a Zerg…they both were. Oh crap ZERG!

She leapt from the cryo pod, franticly looking around for anything that could be used as a weapon or an escape route. She couldn't find either. On top of that, she was also naked. However, the two Zerg just stood there, looking at each other. Were they…confused?

"My Queen," the humanoid zerg said, in a polite tone "I apologize for startling you, but we have to leave. I do not know the response time of the Dominion, but I doubt that it's a good idea to stick around when they do arrive."

"Who…Who are you! What do you want from me!" Kerrigan was barely able to contain her terror. That…thing knew her? Called her 'Queen'?

The human and the hydralisk looked at each in confusion again. Whatever they thought her reaction would be, this obviously wasn't one of them. "I am Tiberias Cain, this is Larry, and we are here to rescue you. You were captured by the Dominion when they invaded Char. Apparently, they removed most of the enhancements the Overmind gave you, and they seemed to have damaged your memory as well."

No no no no, it was all a dream, she was never infested, it couldn't have been real.

"Okay, calm down Sarah, there is a perfectly rational explanation for all this." She thought to herself. "They haven't killed you yet, they must need you alive for something." Pulling herself back together, and still hoping she was still dreming, she yelled: "How can I believe you? You're a Zerg, you've done nothing but killing humans since you arrived in the sector!"

The humanoid seemed very insulted, but rather than spitting her verbal venom back at her, he collected himself and politely asked her to wait. She thought of making a run for it, but 'Larry' was still in the room. It didn't look particularly threatening, not to her anyway, but Kerrigan knew better than to tempt faith with something that could rip her in half in a single strike. 'Tiberias' returned with a portable television and turned to the news channel UNN. A mildly Asian looking appeared.

"…across the Dominion, citizens are celebrating the victory over the Zerg Swarm and the capture of the Queen of Blades..."

She looked at the screen and saw figures and pictures flash by. A volcanic planet, crawling with Zerg, and red armored soldiers cutting them down. Death counts, damage estimations, experts talking about who knows what. Finally, the program showed a picture the Queen of Blades herself. Kerrigan's heart froze in its place. The monster on the screen, it was her. A twisted, perverted version of her, but the likeness was unmistakable.

Dominion, Queen of Blades…the dreams. It wasn't a dream. It was real. All of it…

"My lady, we should go."

Right, apparently they were in a hurry. Sarah did her best not to break down into tears, in spite of the fact that her world was coming apart at the seams. Somehow, she knew that showing weakness in front of the Zerg was unwise. She also realized that she was still completely naked.

"I-I'll need some clothes."

"There is no need for that, my Queen. Abathur will be able to undo the damage the Terrans did to your body. He awaits in our leviathan just outside. You'll be your old self before you know it." He spoke with something passing for a smile on his face, apparently trying to reassure her.

It wasn't working. Kerrigan had no intention of returning to her 'old self'. Whoever, whatever Abathur was, she wasn't letting it anywhere near her.

"Clothes. Now." She said, as forcefully as she could muster. Tiberias tried to object, but something seemed to change in him. His stance suddenly became more submissive and it seemed as if he was under the effect of a neuro-adjuster, a device used by the Confederacy to ensure the loyalty of ghosts such as her.

"Armory is just outside the door, my lady."

Kerrigan searched the armory, looking for anything she could use. She found a female ghost environment suit that fit her reasonably well. The suit was tighter than she remembered, but it'd have to do. As she was putting it on, thoughts began racing through her head. Was she still the Queen of Blades? If she wasn't, was she still Sarah Kerrigan? Was she both? Neither? Her dreams always felt like it was all happening to someone else, like she was suffering from some sort of bizarre multiple personality disorder. Yet the Zerg outside seemed convinced that she was their Queen. A quick mind probe confirmed this. Strangely enough, while the Zerg knew she was doing it, they made no attempt whatsoever to stop her. Not even the humanoid one, who seemed to be intelligent and capable enough to shield his mind from a simple probe with ease. It looked like they trusted her implicitly, but she couldn't understand why. They didn't know who she was or what she wanted. Hell, _she_ didn't even know who she was or what she wanted! Was it all some sort of ridiculously elaborate trap? It seemed unlikely; Tiberias was far too honest with her. Then again, aliens wanting her to be their queen did not seem very likely either.

Regardless, she needed to focus on her immediate safety, not waste time with existentialist conundrums. The Zerg seemed to be truthful to her. At the very least, they would be able to keep her save from the Dominion. Who else could she turn to? The Protoss? Fenix, Aldaris, Raszagal, and countless other names popped into her mind. Protoss she had murdered. No, they'd probably shoot her on sight, and she deserved it. Raynor? Tiberias hadn't mentioned him at all, but probably because he didn't seem that fond of humans in general. She'd better chose her words carefully if she wanted to know more about Jim's whereabouts. Antagonizing a large man with a giant gun didn't seem like a good idea.

"Tiberias, can you please come in." He obeyed and sat down on one of the ammo crates. "What can you tell me about Raynor?"

"Raynor…he had been a thorn in your side for years. Seems to be allies with the Protoss Protectorate, and fights both us and the Dominion. How he and his Raiders manage, I'll never know." The words seem to be spat from his mouth with disdain and disgust. Yep, he really didn't like him.

"Do you know where he is now? The news didn't mention him."

"He personally led the invasion of Char alongside the Dominion. I assume he's still there, fighting what remains of our kin. In spite of his ability, I doubt he's a threat to us anytime soon, unless we go on the offensive or actively seek him out. If we keep a low profile, you should be able to reunite your broods without too much trouble from any of the Terran factions."

"'I' should reunite them? Why not you, or someone else?"

Cain looked at her curiously, as if she asked something that was supposed to be common knowledge. "You are the strongest psychic among the Zerg, my lady. The Swarm is meant to be ruled by the most powerful; therefore, the mantle is yours."

"And you think I'm a Zerg?"

The Zerg chuckled "I'd be lying if I said I didn't doubt the fact myself, especially seeing you in that uniform. That said, I may be just an infested Terran, but I can sense Zerg blood when I see it, my Queen. Besides, the nerve chords are a bit of a giveaway."

"Nerve chords?"

The infested Terran pointed to the spines on his head. Kerrigan looked for them on her own head with her fingers, and found a big bundle of similar spines attached to her skull, covering her scalp. Her mind had been spinning so much since she awoke that she didn't notice them sooner. They were brown and appeared more withered than those of her apparent subordinate, but they were there nonetheless. She felt nauseous and filthy, as if some malevolence had tainted her body. From one perspective, she was probably right. Sarah grabbed a piece of wiring laying around and fashioned her 'hair' into a ponytail of sorts. She flinched. The damn things were touch-sensitive. Still, she tied them up anyway. The feeling of those tentacles draping across her shoulders was sickening, now that she knew they were there. At least it would keep them out of her face, even if it couldn't keep them out of her mind.

"Are you ready to go? I want to be as far away from here as possible when the Dominion arrives."

"I am, Cain. Just let me bag up some ammo. Tell me, is there some room on your ship where I can think?"

"Of course, my lady. Abathur will need some time to prepare your chrysalis anyway." Oh crap, he hasn't forgotten about that. Well, she'd better come up with a good reason to turn him down, and fast, unless she wanted to be infested again.

Kerrigan exited the facility and found herself starring at the enormous vertical maw of the leviathan. The creature opened its mouth, and Tai and Larry jumped in.

"THIS is your ship?" She yelled.

"Yep. It's not the biggest leviathan we once had, but it gets the job done." The massive creature let out a slightly irritated groan. "Oh don't take it personally, you overgrown blimp! Come on board!"

"You fly around in the bowels of a space-faring animal?" She couldn't hide her disbelief any longer.

"Yes." The infested Terran seemed to sink in thought. "You probably shouldn't to think too much about it."

So she just got rescued by a bunch of killer aliens who fly around in the bowels of an even bigger killer alien, while being hunted by the man who saved her from the Confederacy. Thinking about any of this was probably the worst thing Kerrigan could do now. Absurdity seemed to be dripping from this insane situation like the beast's saliva. Some part of her mind still feared a trap.

"Well, here goes nothing…" She thought, as she stepped inside the leviathan. She was praying they at least had a shower.


	6. Chapter 6

Deep space, Elysium system

Kerrigan sat in an empty room of the leviathan, pondering. Tiberias and an infested adjutant named Izsha had given her a brief rundown of the past four years: Mengsk's betrayal, the Brood war, Raynor's final assault on Char with the artifact.

Raynor. She wished he was here. Sarah never got the chance to tell him how she really felt about him. Given all that has happened, she probably never would.

She was a murderer, a tyrant, but above all, she was a Zerg. She couldn't remember all the details from the past four years, but it didn't matter. The nerve chords, the fact that Cain obeyed her, the idea that she would willingly enter the mouth of this…thing. She could no longer deny it. She was Zerg. A goddamn Zerg.

Part of her knew all along, but the finality of it didn't hit her until that moment. All the horrible things she did as the Queen of Blades…there is no absolution for crimes she committed. There never would be. Kerrigan's rage and sorrow finally got the better of her, and she pounded on the walls of her chamber with all the fury her hatred could provide, ignoring the leviathan's irritated groans. The former queen was angry at Mengsk for leaving her on Tarsonis, angry at the Zerg for turning her into a monster, angry at the universe for putting her in this situation. She could save all creation, and it still wouldn't redeem her in the eyes of the sector. Kerrigan wondered if she should do humanity a favor and blow her own brains out. Her gun seemed friendlier by the minute.

No. She was stronger than that. If the Confederacy couldn't fully break her, no one could. It felt as if some part of her refused to back down. Just another challenge. As her ghost instructors would have said: just another stepping stone in realizing her full potential. She would make things right, or die trying. And she would start with Raynor. Funny how the second most horrible time of her life gave her the strength to continue. Now, to come up with a good excuse to go looking for him.

Tai entered the chamber, probably summoned by the beast's groaning. "My lady, I'm sure the leviathan feels very sorry for whatever it did to upset you." She couldn't help but chuckle. Apparently humor wasn't completely lost on the infested Terran.

"It's not the ship Tiberias, it's…ugh, never mind." It was unlikely he'd really understand what she was going through. Maybe she could explain it later, if it was necessary. Sarah didn't want to show any weakness to them if she could avoid it.

"In that case, may I kindly request that you stop trying giving our ship stomach cramps?"

"Can you call the other sentient Zerg? We have some things to discuss."

"That we do, my Queen. Follow me. Oh by the way, you can call me Tai."

The infested Terran led her to a hallway of sorts near the leviathan's head. Abathur, the Swarm's chief geneticist (who also happened to look like a giant, betentakled grub), and Izsha were already waiting for her.

"Well, my Queen, I suppose you have had plenty of time to concoct a suitable long-term plan. There is little for us to do, here in deep space." Abathur seemed restless and annoyed. Apparently it doesn't like to dally around unnecessarily.

"I have, Abathur. I plan on finding Jim Raynor."

"I do not think revenge is a wise course of action right now. Our forces are far too meager to slay him and his Raiders."

"I have no intention of killing him. We're going to need his help."

The Zerg stared at her as if she just sprouted an extra head. Was the idea of allying with humans so strange to them? Then again, Zerg…

Tai was the first to break the silence. "I presume you have a very good reason to want to find the man responsible for putting us in this predicament in the first place. If you don't want to murder him in an excessively gruesome and comically over-the-top fashion, what do you want him for?"

"As long as the Dominion has access to the Xel-Naga artifact, building a large hive will be impossible. They would simply land next to it and blast it like they did on Char. We need human allies to neutralize the artefact. Unless, of course, you want to lead the attack and get all the Zerg burned out of you." Tai gulped at the last sentence. The idea of being turned back into a Terran seemed to be more revolting than working with them. Good. She should use that as a persuasion tool more often.

"Still, there are other Terran factions that hate the Dominion: the Umojans, or maybe the Kel-Morian Combine…"

"And why would they want to help us? I don't think they like the idea of a reunified Swarm any more than the Dominion does."

"And why would Raynor want to help. He _personally _led the assault on Char."

"Then why didn't the News report mention him? In fact, Izsha, has there been any report on the Raiders since the invasion?"

"None, mistress, apart from a news report that states they have apparently 'halted their campaign of terror'. The Raynor and his Raiders seemed to have vanished. However, I have not been looking for him. It is entirely possible that he is hiding somewhere or that he has been captured."

"Keep monitoring their communications. I want him found. Now Tiberias, if I were a suspicious person, I'd say the Dominion betrayed and captured him, or at the very least tried to. With a bit of luck, I can convince him that helping us is mutually beneficial, once we find him of course."

"What makes you think he would trust you? You already betrayed him in the Brood War. He will expect a trap, even if that isn't your intention." The name 'Fenix' suddenly appeared in Kerrigan's mind. She swallowed and regained her composure, hoping the Zerg hadn't noticed.

"In his eyes, the Queen of Blades betrayed him, not me. I'll just have to convince him I'm not her anymore. Which is why, Abathur, the chrysalis you have been preparing will have to wait. If I at least appear human, I might just have a chance of getting through to him."

"You wish rebuild your brood, side with one of our most lethal enemies, AND fight the Dominion without any enhancements to your body? My Queen, I must protest! What you propose is folly." The chief geneticist of the Swarm roared. "You will be forced into combat, and if you are slain in battle, the Swarms will fall. _Permanently._"

"Abathur, control yourself! This is the Queen you are talking to! I don't like her plan either, but she's right. We can't fight the Dominion on our own, not while they have that trice-damned artifact. If the only way we can convince the humans to help us is by keeping her like this, then we keep her like this. The Queen will just have to be a little more careful when she's out." Well, at least she managed to convince Cain. That was a good start.

"I'm a ghost, Tai, I'm tougher than I look. I'm also a good shot with my C-10, and my psionics are still lethal, even without Abathur's help." She turned to Abathur directly. "As much as your expertise would make things easier, I would prefer you stick to enhancing the broods we recapture." Kerrigan knew she couldn't afford to get on the wrong side of the Swarms greatest scientific mind. Giving the beast a little lip service felt like the best course of action right now. Judging by the change in Abathurs's stance, it seemed to be working.

Finally, Izsha decided to chime in. "Mistress, may I remind you that with virtually no Zerg at your command, our options are limited. Not to mention the fact that we have no idea where Raynor and his Raiders are. I would recommend reclaiming the feral brood located on Agria as a starting point. It is a low-risk mission that would allow you to 'practice your skills' as humans would say it. This will allow me plenty of time to monitor Dominion transmissions and hopefully find Raynor."

"Very well Izsha. Warn me when we near the planet."

Kerrigan almost could barely believe she actually managed to convince them. Maybe things were lighting up for her after all. Maybe.

Bucephalus, Deep space

Valerian Mengsk was not happy. He hated his father, both as a parent and as an emperor. The thought of being anything like him terrified the young prince.

He had always admired Raynor's Raiders. As one of the few people who truly knew the Emperor as the ruthless monster that he was, anyone who had the courage to stand up to him was a bloody hero in Valerian's eyes. The fact that the Raiders pressed on in spite of their lack of immediate success only added to their image. They represented everything humanity did right: courage, sacrifice, perseverance. And he betrayed them.

He used their need for funding as a way to get them to hunt the artifact pieces. He used Raynor's love for Kerrigan to convince him to join, and eventually lead, the Char invasion. He used his moment of weakness after the victory to arrest him and to take the woman in his arms away from him. He betrayed him, just like his father would. Valerian was sure he would be very proud of is scheming, backstabbing son.

It seemed the only difference between him and his father was the reason for his actions. Arcturus only sought to maintain his power, whereas Valerian wanted humanity to survive. A humanity that needed guidance and would collapse without it. Without a ruler to make the hard decisions no one else could, humanity would be crushed between the Protoss and the Zerg. The prince could not let humanity fall, even if it meant keeping someone like the Emperor in power. By publicly executing the Queen of Blades, or what was left of her, he would make himself a hero in the eyes of the people, bringing stability to the shattered Dominion. He could not afford to have a man like Raynor spread sympathy for the fallen Queen, even if she does deserve it. The prince would save humanity, even through manipulation. If the cost was his own damnation, then so be it.

At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

These words seemed to become more hollow by the day, although he did not realize how just much until General Warfield turned on him. The aging soldier taught him everything he knew about warfare, as well as many lessons in being a man. The prince respected Warfield more than anyone else alive. Having him arrested was probably the hardest thing he has ever done. Valerian was grateful that Nova used a simple radio rather than a proper communicator. Had he seen their faces, he would not have been able to go through with his plan. He simply did not have the courage to betray them in the open or to even look them in the eye.

The door opened and one of the Prince's lieutenants entered with a worried look on his face.

"My lord, we have a problem. The Elysium facility was attacked a few days ago. No survivors and the Queen of Blades is unaccounted for." Valerian's face turned a shade of white reminiscent of marble. This was bad. Worst case scenario bad.

"What, how is that possible? I ordered a battlecruiser with a full complement of some of our best marines to guard it. Who did this? What happened?"

"The Zerg attacked them, your Highness. The battlecruiser's camera footage show that it was ripped apart by a class 10 Zerg flyer before the marines had time to drop. It was similar to the Leviathan your forces faced on Char, but smaller."

"That thing was ponderously slow. How could it have moved fast enough to take out a battlecruiser before it could evacuate?

"The techs say that it used the planets gravity to sling-shot around the planet in order to increase its speed. I'd say that's a load of crap, no way they could do that without a supercomputer or an adjutant." The lieutenant said, sceptically.

"You have a better explanation?"

"No…no, I suppose I do not, your majesty."

The prince sighed. The Elysium facility was supposed to be impossible to find. The Zerg were apparently smarter than he had thought. "What about the facility and the men stationed on the ground?"

"The bodies of the marines on the ground show marks of claws and needle spines. The Queen's cryo pod was found empty. The Zerg managed to properly revive her. Since we couldn't find her body, she must have been taken by them."

"Willingly, or as a prisoner?"

"We do not know what happened to her. There was only outdoor camera footage, and it was largely obstructed by the leviathan as it landed to pick them up."

"How did they find her anyway? We put her in the ass end of nowhere for just that reason."

"We don't know. If it were humans, I'd say they must have intercepted and decoded some of our transmissions."

"Well it seems humans aren't the only ones capable of being clever." The Prince was sweating at this point. He had been convinced that the Zerg Swarm would not have the coherency to form any sort of organized resistance after the Queen of Blades' defeat. Staging a rescue mission seemed to be impossible, at least for some time. He had massively underestimated them. Now, his mistake could cost humanity dearly.

"Find her, lieutenant. Alive if possible, but don't be afraid to terminate her if you must. Don't use the regular comm. channels. We have to assume they are compromised."

The Lieutenant bowed politely before leaving. The prince was terrified. If the Queen of Blades had escaped, there is no telling what havoc she could cause. He prayed to God that his men would find her before all hell breaks loose.

_A/N Okay, so Valerian got a new interpretation. I feel I must explain my reasoning behind this before you review-bomb me to death about it. When I started out, I wanted to create a story for Heart of the Swarm that was as close to canon as possible. However, I have never read any of the books, so I only had the games and the HotS trailers as reference. In SCII, Valerian struck me as, well, Mengsk junior and I fully expected him to turn traitor. In fact, it seemed to work perfectly. According to the HotS trailers, Raynor is conspicuously absent and it seemed odd to me that he would just let Kerrigan go after WoL to get her broods together on her own. By giving Valerian Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, I could put Raynor on a bus for a while and allow Kerrigan to work independently. However, Ragnarok666 pointed out to me that Valerian hated his father and was actually one of the good guys. So much for that idea. Up to me to revise his character. I ended up rewriting him a good person in a bad situation, forced to make horrible decisions to, as far as he knows, save his people, giving me the opportunity to sadistically crush his youthful optimism into the ground for the general amusement of all. Thanks Ragnarok666, I think Valerian's character becomes much better rounded and more interesting this way. Allow me to do a little advertising on your behalf as a sign of my gratitude. You've totally earned it._

_If you haven't already, check out Aftermath and Revelations. Ragnarok666 is a seriously great writer in his own right, so go read and review it after mine! _


	7. Chapter 7

Deep space, en route to Agria

Kerrigan was a little nervous about going to Agria. According to Izsha, Agria was a garden world: easily habitable, in spite of the Zerg presence. If she were in charge of the Dominion, that would be one of the first places she'd sent her troops to reclaim. That, however, wasn't her only worry. There was no way of knowing what the feral Zerg would do when they would meet her again. She'd probably had to force them back in line by force, something Kerrigan really didn't feel like doing. Would she be any better than her ghost controllers or the Overmind if she willingly robbed creatures of their free will for her own personal gain? Maybe she'd just draw the line at sentient beings, for convenience's sake. After all, non-sentient Zerg behaved more like machines than living things, and she'd never worried about offending her gun, or given funerals for the bullets she used in battle.

Right now, however, her ability to control the Zerg was a more pressing concern than the moral implications of her methods. Right and wrong were great things to discuss, but not when you're in serious danger of getting killed. Thankfully, there were some Zerglings in the 'hold' that she could practice with. Controlling them proved to be much easier than she thought it would be. The dog-like creatures seemed to want her to control them, like a submissive instinct of sorts. Must have had something to do with her being their Queen and all. Strangely enough, however, some part of her didn't mind answering their calls for guidance. To Kerrigan, it felt like reconnecting with family you haven't seen in ages: uncomfortable at first, but quite pleasant once the metaphorical ice starts to break. They almost seemed cute when they tried to sit on their hind legs at her command, like a dog begging for a morsel from its master. Well, as cute as a Zerg could be anyway.

She wondered if feeling like this was a good thing, but then decided it was a question she'd rather not answer.

The progress she was making with the Zerglings did little to reassure the former Queen of Blades, however. Controlling half a dozen of the little buggers was one thing, taming a rogue brood was another altogether. In spite of her worries, she knew she had to either tame them or destroy them. If nothing else, removing the Agrian broods would make it easier for the humans to reclaim the planet and rebuild their shattered lives. She owed them that much.

Izsha telepathically reached out to her to warn Kerrigan of their arrival. Sarah wished that the Zerg would outfit their ships with an intercom. She didn't like the idea of the creepy bug-aliens rummaging about in her mind. The realization that she was the Queen creepy bug-alien didn't make her feel any better at all. The ex-ghost chuckled at her own thoughts. Just when she thought there wasn't anything in the universe that could make her feel any worse, she found something that did. One of these days, she was going to have to get over herself and come to terms with what happened to her, for the sake of her own sanity. Maybe a little field trip to beautiful Agria would make her feel better.

"We have arrived in high orbit over Agria. No other ships in orbit detected. Several feral small hive-clusters have been detected on the surface." Izsha spoke, with a strangely robotic voice. Kerrigan wondered if this was normal. Since the others didn't seem to think otherwise, she decided to leave it to rest.

"That seems rather odd. You'd think the Dominion would want to rebuild this colony as quickly as possible. The planet looks perfectly habitable to me." Kerrigan referred to the patches of green that were obviously massive forests and jungles, and the bluish-green oceans. The world did live up to its reputation. Somebody could make a killing here in the tourist trade, if they could solve the planet's little Zerg problem.

"There is no Dominion presence whatsoever, and no transmissions that indicate there will be one any time soon. There seem to be no signs of human life, save the ruins of a few of their colonies. The humans have abandoned this colony when they evacuated it during our invasion and have not attempted to recolonize it since."

Good for her, Kerrigan thought. No interference. "What about the Zerg?"

"There are several hive-clusters present on the surface. None of them were particularly well-developed, and most of them did not survive the anarchy following your…capture, Mistress. However, one of them did survive in some form. The overlords must have found a way to control their charges well enough to prevent them from attacking one another."

Abathur looked up in surprise. "This is most unusual. Overlords are reasonably intelligent but this is well beyond their capabilities. They must be bearing some form of mutation. My Lady, if you would acquire their remains, I may be able to learn something from these renegades."

"Well, I'll see what I can do. That small, lone hatchery to the south of the main cluster seems like a good place to start. I'll take a small batch of Zerglings with me and we can breed ourselves some reinforcements in case the feral Zerg aren't feeling hospitable." Kerrigan turned to Tiberias, already brandishing his weapon. "I think it's best if I go alone on this one. You can control Zerg too and I don't want any interference. I need to be able to do this on my own."

The infested Terran seemed reluctant, but complied anyway. "I understand. At least take Larry with you. He can't control other Zerg and would be able to protect you if you are attacked."

"Very well." The idea of being followed around by a giant snake monster still wasn't very appealing to Kerrigan. She could never tell if the beast was seeking her approval or was thinking about having her for lunch. Still, Cain's concern was almost touching.

"If things go wrong, I'll be waiting right behind you with the full might of the Swarm to assist." He raised his shoulders, trying to be as convincing and imposing as possible. The poor bastard tried really hard to reassure her.

"You are aware that the 'full might of the Swarm' consists of you and a few Zerglings, right?"

His shoulders lowered again. "Yes, my Lady, I was just trying to make you feel better. Now, we should get you strapped into one of our sacs."

"Sacs?"

"The Terran analogue would be drop pods, my Queen."

"Right."

Great. Being thrown of a spaceship in a little box was just what this day needed.

Upper Atmosphere, Agria

"You want me to ride to the surface in THAT" Kerrigan almost shouted. She was not very pleased with her new form of transportation.

"They may be small and cramped, my Lady, but I assure you they are perfectly safe. I have used them dozens of times without incident. Why, _you_ have used them many times yourself, even if you can't remember it. It's going to fill up with goo and you won't even feel the descent."

"Goo?"

"A scientific term, my Lady. It's basically stuffing, nothing more. It won't affect you or your equipment in any way. My rifle is still working fine, even after three years of service. Just be sure to shake your gun a bit to get rid of the worst of it." In spite of Tai's reassurances, the former Queen did not seem convinced. "Look, it may not be the most luxurious form of transport, but it will allow you to land near the target hatchery without attracting too much attention."

Part of her, presumably the last remnant of her sanity, begged her not to do this, but she stepped inside anyway. The infested Terran hadn't lied to her yet and apparently entrusted the life of his friend to the pod. Kerrigan decided to give it the benefit of the doubt. The sac sealed itself and was filled with a thick, viscous fluid, leaving enough room for her to breathe. Then, without much ceremony, she felt that the organic pod was hurled out of the leviathan.

It appeared Tiberias was right: she couldn't even feel the bumpy descent through the Agria's atmosphere. That, however, wasn't the reason that she was feeling so anxious. Floating in this fluid filled pod felt eerily familiar. Her mind wandered towards the memories of the day this nightmare began.

Kerrigan awoke to an sharp pain in the back of her skull, like something just jammed a knife through it and started wriggling it around. She tried reaching back with her hands to tear it out, but her arms didn't seem to respond. The thing that forced its way in seem to spread out inside her skull and scratch the edges of her mind. Just trying to think was getting harder by the minute. Despite the ghost's best efforts to erect some sort of psychic defence, she was unable to keep it out, at least not completely. Removing it telekinetically seemed like her best option, but she was afraid that she'd destroy her own brain in an attempt to physically tear it out. Out of desperation, the ghost tried it anyway, only to have a hot lance of pain slam into her skull. Some sort of psychic feedback was preventing her from forcing the invaders out. Powerless, Kerrigan realized that the only thing she could do now was to wait and scream.

When the pain subsided, she tried to get her bearings. She was inside some sort of cocoon-like container filled with fluid. It was being carried by...something. The ghost knew, somehow, that she had to get out, but she couldn't. Her limbs felt tired and weak, like she was drugged somehow. Where was she? How did she get here? Kerrigan tried to think back. She remembered being on Tarsonis, fighting the Protoss when the Zerg attacked from the rear. She remembered calling for aid and that none came. She remembered the clicking sound of her empty rifle, the endless Swarm roaring towards her. But she wasn't dead. If the Zerg didn't kill her, what could have…

She realized what was happening. She wasn't dead, though part of her knew she would soon wish she was. The Zerg had captured her and were going to turn her into one of them. No, she would not let that happen! She would rather die a thousand times than to be turned into a monster and let loose against her own people. The girl reached out again, screaming, but the suffocating weight of the hive mind and the presence inside her muffled her thoughts. She was alone, with no one but the evil that was slowly turning her into a twisted mockery of her former self.

Despair consumed the young ghost's mind. Not since her days with the Confederacy had she felt so helpless. She tried to reach for a weapon, only to notice that she was unarmed. This made her feel naked, in more ways than one. Kerrigan was always armed: even aboard the Hyperion, she carried a combat knife with her at all times. But now, when she needed it the most, the ghost had nothing to defend herself with, not even her psionics. She was utterly at the mercy of an enemy that wasn't known for extending any, and it terrified her. The Zerg Overmind used the opportunity to mentally 'attack' her directly, only to be forced out of her mind. The ghost won this time, but as time passed it became harder and harder to muster the willpower to keep it out.

Soon after, Kerrigan started to feel a strange burning sensation spreading inside her. It felt like her inner organs were shifting, changing, like a malignant cancer was growing within her body. Yet, some part of her, something that she knew wasn't there before, seemed to like it. In spite of the turmoil inside her, the ghost mustered every last ounce of her psychic power in order to contain it, to purge this corruption before it consumed her completely. Once again, agony shattered her concentration. The unspeakable power of the Overmind prevented her from fighting off their influence. As two limb-like structures painfully sprouted from her back, all she could do was rage against her own confines. Long spines pushed themselves out of her skull and the pain caused her to lose consciousness. When she woke up again, her skin had hardened and warped. She screamed, but to no avail. All she could do was pray for someone, Jim, Arcturus, _anyone_, to come to her rescue.

The ghost allowed herself to hope when she sensed the Terran army, under General Duke, nearing. Hope that was crushed with an almost sadistic air when the Zerg made her watch while they viciously tore the humans apart. His failure to rescue them was the last straw for the exhausted ex-Confederate operative. If humanity's greatest general couldn't save her, who could possibly come to her aid? At the edge of her perception, she could sense Raynor. Jim freaking Raynor. The knight in shining armor, coming to her rescue. Too little, too late. The Zerg tried to claim her mind again and she no longer had the strength to resist them. The sea of voices that was the Zerg Overmind forced its way in, pushing her back into a remote corner of her mind. She could still feel her body, but it was as if it was no longer truly hers. Sarah Kerrigan had ceased to be.

The sac burst open as it landed on the Agrian surface. Kerrigan looked at her body and found she was still wearing her ghost uniform. No claws, no carapace. The nerve chords were still there, though. Still, the ex-ghost let out a small sigh of relief as she realized it was all just a bad memory. Now was not the time for those.

Right now, the mission demanded her attention. She shook the goo of her rifle and moved on.


	8. Chapter 8

**Secondary Hive, Agria**

The landing area was, thankfully, empty. The Zerg psychic presence, while reasonably calm and quiet for the moment, hung over the area like a thick fog, however. Kerrigan did not feel comfortable being near it. Although the feeling was not nearly as powerful, it felt just a little too similar to the presence of the Overmind. Bad memories resurfaced again, but she managed to suppress them. In a way, the roles were reversed: the hive-mind was the one weakened and tired, whereas she was the invader, stepping in to take over the Zerg. The irony was dripping from this whole situation like grease from a fine piece of meat.

The former Queen felt uneasy. The voices of the Zerg that were floating about in the distance, the feeling of creep beneath her feet, the angry hissing of Larry at some movement in the bushes; she wasn't sure if she was exploring a strange, new world or coming home from a long journey. The smooth curves of the central hatchery structure felt so familiar, and yet so unmistakably alien. There was something sad about the picture: once, it was destined to become the focal point of an entire hive; now, it was little more than a sad, empty husk. The creep surrounding it did nothing to nourish the poor drones desperately clinging to life. Such a fitting metaphor for the current state of the Swarm.

Kerrigan wondered how to take control of the hatchery: break through its defenses and enslave it? Knock and politely ask? Eventually she decided to 'poke her head inside' and figure out how to go from there. To her surprise, there was nothing there to oppose her. The hatchery had no controller, no queens, no overlords, nothing. It just sat there like a piece of derelict machinery. Taking control was as easy as mentally pushing an on-button. The hatchery changed almost immediately. Fluid ran through its veins again and its walls regained its color. The creep surrounding it seemed revitalized and the drones immediately got back to work on the mineral deposits. Their urgency made them look like a bunch of servants desperately trying to clean the house when their master suddenly returned. Soon, a few larvae started to emerge from the 'vents' near the ground. Well, it was nice to see that her new acquisition was working alright.

While the drones were harvesting, Kerrigan turned to another matter: the feral Zerg around her. Though their exact numbers were difficult to determine, she knew she was badly outnumbered and that the Zerg could strike any moment. Reinforcements would have to be bred, and fast.

"Abathur, I'm going to need more Zerglings to finish up here."

"The solution for that is simple, my Queen. Order one of the drones to mutate into a spawning pool. This will make the Zergling's genetic strain available to your larva."

Great, how was she supposed to do that? He really had to cut down on the techno-babble. Kerrigan looked at one of the drones and hoped it'd obey on instinct. One of these days, she'd have to explain to Abathur that ruling the Swarm wasn't second nature to her any more…or maybe it was? The drone moved to the edge of the creep and formed a cocoon around itself. After a few minutes, the cocoon burst open, revealing something that could best be described as the sector's filthiest Jacuzzi. Which reminded her, she still needed a shower.

Her musings on personal hygiene were rudely interrupted by Larry's angry growling. Apparently the feral Zerg had taken notice of her and her cohorts and took offence to the newcomers. A large group of Zerglings surged towards them, and she didn't have the numbers to stop them yet. Unless…well why not? She still had psychic powers, might as well try to use them. Thinking it was best to start small, she opted for a small pulse to knock the invaders of her feet. The former queen gathered the energy she needed and lashed out.

The attack worked better than she thought. The onrushing zerglings fell to the ground like they've just been hit on the head with a hammer. Disoriented, they were powerless to defend themselves against Kerrigan's escorts. Within minutes, the attack was soundly defeated without a single loss on the loyalist side. Maybe such a quick and crushing victory would convince the overlords to fall in line. As she reached out to them, they all expelled her in turn. Apparently the higher forms of Zerg didn't see her as their ruler anymore. Well, if they weren't going to obey her, she'd just have to beat some sense into them.

She knew there were four overlords keeping the peace in the main hive. Eliminating them would make the hive and the Zerg protecting it vulnerable to capture. First, however, she'd need an army, or at least a decent horde of zerglings. As lethal as she still was, Kerrigan knew that her power had its limits and didn't want to tax herself unnecessarily. That last pulse gave her quite a headache and she didn't want to use it too often. Don't even get her started on something fancier, like a psionic storm. She remembered very well what could happen to psychics who pushed themselves too hard from her time in the ghost academy.

She turned to her hatchery only to find that several larva had already cocooned themselves. Did they instinctively know what she expected of them or did she order them without her consciously realizing it? Either way, she had her zerglings. Right now, it seemed best to just stay put, build up, and wait for the next attack before making her push and crushing the rebels under her heel. Judging by the sea of voices amassing at the edge of her hive, she wouldn't have to wait long.

The feral Zerg sallied forth in another attempt to dislodge the invaders. This time, however, Kerrigan was ready for them. Her brood was large enough to match the enemy in terms of numbers, and the loyalists had the advantage of having a powerful ghost and a Hunter-Killer supporting them. Larry fired into the onrushing horde, while Kerrigan used her rifle and her psychic pulses to thin their ranks. When the battle was joined, the field quickly turned into a bloodbath, as zerglings tore each other to pieces, while bullets and spines whizzed overhead, finding their marks. It did raise the question of how the Zerg were able to distinguish friend from foe in the middle of a frenzy. Better yet, how was she able to do it? One of the attackers used her momentary distraction to try to climb over the remains of its fallen brethren in an attempt to make a leap at the ghost, only to be caught mid-air and pinned to the ground by Larry's scythes. Right, no more distractions during battles. Kerrigan shot down the last few stranglers, then ordered her brood forward. Time to finish this.

The overlord leading the attack tried to flee back to its hive, but the ex-ghost shot it down with a well-aimed bullet to the head. The rebel's collective mind took notice and shuddered at the loss of one of their own. As the fallen overlord's body crashed on the surface, the remaining overlords lost control of part of their brood. Some of these 'traitor' Zerg joined forces with Kerrigan's army, whereas others went into a frenzy and attacked everything in sight, rebel or loyalist. This would make the push on the hive much easier. When her armies approached the hive, she noticed another overlord floating above it. This one was larger than the last, and the psionic emanations were much stronger as well. Strong enough to be directing the others. It must be the mutant overlord that Abathur spoke off. New objective: Get close to the rebellious mutant freak and blow its brains out. Oh, this would be fun.

Unfortunately, this overlord wasn't as dim-witted as the other one was. It knew from which direction Kerrigan's army would attack and that its head was vulnerable, so it turned its armored back to the attackers while relying on its psionic senses to 'see' the interlopers. Seemed like brute force is the only way in. Urging her army forward, the former queen made her move. As her Zerg swept aside the defenders, the ghost ran forward, her great speed further augmented by the artificial muscle fibers in her suit. She loaded some explosive rounds into her rifle and fired them into the helium-filled gas sacs that kept the creature in the air. With a pained groan, it fell to the earth and slammed into a hillside nearby. Kerrigan calmly walked to the creature's head and, with a single, merciless bullet, ended its life. Without their leader's aid, the two remaining overlords lost control over their minions, and the rebel Zerg turned on each other in the ensuing anarchy. The psychic voices turned into a horrible, all-consuming cacophony, frighteningly similar to the collective mind that took control of her four years ago. This time, however, she had the means to face it. Kerrigan sat down, took a deep breath, and mentally reached out to the many minds surrounding her. One by one, they fell in line. Eventually, even the two overlords surrendered to her. While it would probably be wiser to kill them off, she decided to keep them anyway. Right now, every Zerg was a precious resource she couldn't afford to waste.

Izsha spoke to her: "The feral Zerg appeared to have calmed, Mistress. I assume your mission was a success?"

"It was, Izsha. It was. Take the leviathan and land close to the main hive. I think it could use some extra fuel. Abathur, your mutant overlord was leading the whole bunch. Can you take your samples before it starts to smell?"

"As you command, my Queen."

For some reason, hearing the phrase 'my Queen' did not bother her as much as it did before. While calling herself Queen of the Zerg might be a bit premature right now, she did feel comfortable enough to consider herself the queen of this brood. As she ordered her newly acquired drones to harvest everything they could, she felt herself brimming with confidence. Sure, the victory here was just a small step in her long term plans, but it was strangely satisfying nonetheless.

The Queen felt better already. Agria truly lives up to its reputation.

_A/N Well, a chapter with a lot of action. So, how did I do? Don't be afraid to nitpick or criticize in the reviews. While your advice on the plot is really helpful, I would also like to know what you lot think about my spelling, word choice, and grammar. They are just as important as a good storyline is, and my writing isn't going to improve itself!_


	9. Chapter 9

**Leviathan, Agria**

Kerrigan sat against the thick, muscular walls of her chambers, mentally surveying the actions of her brood. Under the direction of their overlords, the drones were diligently mining the valley dry. The hatcheries were converting it to fuel and biomass for later use. The zerglings were scouring the area for any stray feral Zerg that might be 'persuaded' to join the cause, but thus far, they only found stranglers that somehow survived the battle for the hive she just captured. Since her brood was handling itself, she decided to turn her attention to other matters, like cleaning her rifle. Not surprisingly, it was covered in what Tai so eloquently called 'goo'. Bloody stuff got everywhere, even after she ordered the creep removed from her chamber so it wouldn't eat her gun or damage the ammunition. Cleaning it was painstaking work, but it was a simple task she didn't mind doing. It was nice to get your mind off things sometimes.

"My Lady, pardon my interruption, but there is something I wish to talk about concerning the battle on Agria." Tiberias walked into the room, appearing slightly nervous. Correcting his ruler didn't seem to be his nature, so it must be quite important for him to dare speak up. "During the battle, the enemy zerglings nearly managed to get through to you. Although your escorts managed to stop them, I feel it would be a good idea to…"

"I don't want a suit of carapace armor, I don't want a set of retractable claws, even if they are hidden well enough for humans not to notice, and I'm not going to stay on the ship." She said, rather irritated.

"I know. I overheard your argument with Abathur. Which is why I found a more 'human' solution: I made you a combat knife. It's a bit bigger than the standard issue knives used by ghosts, but it's better than fighting with your bare hands." Cain presented her what he called a combat knife and once again proved his mastery over the art of understating. Kerrigan inspected the weapon with great interest. Calling it a knife would hardly do it justice: its curved, serrated blade was over a foot long and looked sharp enough to disembowel tanks, or slit the throat of a certain emperor (Now there was a comforting thought.). In spite of its size, the weapon was surprisingly light. "I suppose I do not need to tell you how to use it."

"It's a knife, Tiberias, not a starship. Pointy end goes in the bad guy. Besides, I'm good with knifes." The infested Terran turned to leave. "Thanks, Cain. I appreciate the thought."

He seemed to be surprised by the last thing she said.

"What, has no one ever thanked you before?"

"Others have, yes, but you haven't thanked me, or anyone else, since…well…ever. At least not as long as I've known you." She meant it as a joke. This was not the answer she was expecting. Apparently the Queen of Blades wasn't exactly a pleasant person to work for. Why would he try so hard to get her back?

"Tai, I have to ask. Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

She thought it would be obvious… "You went through an awful lot of trouble to get me back, while you really didn't need to. I mean, for goodness' sake, you have a spaceship! You could have gone anywhere you wanted, done anything you wanted. You could have lived out the rest of your life in peace in some forgotten backwater. Why did you give up your freedom to come work for me again?"

"My lady, where would I go? The Protoss and the Dominion would hunt our kind for sport if we can't regain enough cohesion to protect ourselves. Alone, we're easy prey, even someone of my capacity. What was I supposed to do, hide in the lava until the aliens forget about us and go away? God knows, I'm not trying that trick again!" Kerrigan briefly wondered if she should ask about the lava incident, but decided it was best for her sanity to leave the matter be. "Look, all I want is a nice meal, some company and the right to shoot idiots in the face. The Swarm provides that, and more. Truth is, I have everything I would ever want right here. Or had, until Raynor and his band of merry men decided to pay us a visit."

"You don't think things could have been different? Who knows what our lives would look like if the Zerg hadn't shown up."

"I guess I'd still be toiling away in some chemical plant situated in the ass end of nowhere before being murdered by some crook for what little money I happened to have in my pockets. I don't know about you, but from where I stand, being recruited by the Zerg was probably the best thing that has ever happened to me. It certainly beats my old job. The pay is about the same and the secondary benefits are so much better."

"But I'm not paying you at all."

"My point exactly. The Dominion isn't a very pleasant place to live in for a poor nobody like myself, but what I think you are really trying to ask is: do I miss being human? In short: no, I don't."

"Why did you say you were 'recruited'? Did you join willingly?"

"Not really. It just sounds nicer than being kidnapped and infested, even if the end result is the same. I struggled, yes, and you were quite amused by it, if memory serves. It took a while for me to adapt to my new situation," Tai lowered his head as if he felt ashamed for resisting the Zerg influence for as long as he had. "but once I did…well, I suppose that sometimes you just don't know what you are missing until someone shows it to you."

"You could aim for something more than just being content."

"You're right. I want a banquet, my own personal brood, and a live grenade taped to the head of every moron in the sector!" Cain chuckled at the thought. "My lady, I can wish for whatever I want, but ultimately it would be a waste of time. The Swarm is my life now, and there is nothing that I, or anyone else, can do to change that, even if I wanted to. Oh, I apologize for keeping you this long. I should get back to my duties." With a polite bow, he left the room.

Throughout the conversation, Kerrigan searched his mind, looking for any form of deception. She couldn't believe anyone would be able to say what he just said with a straight face, let alone be sincere about it. He sounded like some poor bastard that had been brainwashed by a cult. That, and maybe the world's worst case of Stockholm Syndrome.

Then again, did she feel a hint of regret in him? Maybe that was just her own, a by-product of the realization that she did more than just kill her victims. She focused her attention on her rifle again. This train of thought wasn't one she felt comfortable staying on any longer.

Tiberias walked back to the main hall where Abathur and Izsha seemed to be waiting for him.

Abathur spoke first. "Tiberias, there is something we must discuss. It concerns the Queen…"

"If this is about her refusing to let you help her, drop it. She doesn't want it and she has a good reason to do so. We're not going to change her mind anytime soon."

"No, that is not what I meant. Her behavior is what has me concerned. Though her decisions have proven to be correct thus far, I cannot help but doubt her motivations. Not to mention her response to my protests. The Queen of Blades was always prone to unusual behavior, but this is very unlike her."

"So she explains her actions rather than pulling rank, and you're _complaining_? Besides, given all that has happened, I'd be more concerned if she wasn't affected."

"Tiberias is right, Abathur." Izsha chimed in. "The past few weeks have been stressful to the extreme. She has little memory of her past self and will need time to readjust. I suppose we all do."

"I fear it may be more than that, Izsha. What little memories her majesty does possess seem to revile her. It almost seems like the artifact reprogrammed her mind. As if her sense of morality has been changed at the most basic level. She acts more human than Zerg. We must be prepared for the possibility that the entity we know as the Queen of Blades is dead. While I cannot be certain without further analysis of her body, her behavior remains disconcerting. I do not know if she is still willing to what is best for the Swarm."

Abathur's doubts worried Tai greatly. It was very unusual for him to doubt his superiors, let alone do it so openly. Cain tried to put his colleague's fears to rest. "If memory serves, you weren't particularly fond of her even before the invasion. I remember you fearing that her pride would be the end of her."

"It appears I was correct to do so. She thought herself invincible, safe in her bastion on Char. Her pride nearly cost her her life. The Queen is too important to all of us to possess such 'human' weaknesses."

"You think the artifact has made her too emotional?"

Abathur rubbed his hands, almost nervously. Worrisome for someone that's always been almost impervious to fear. "Yes, I believe it has. It seems as if something else has suppressed or destroyed the personality of our Queen and taken control of her body."

"Have you ever considered that it might be the other way around? That the artifact may have removed her old personality, rather than adding another one? That her occasionally erratic behavior as the Queen of Blades was the result of some sort of internal conflict? A human personality fighting her dominant Zerg personality? It would explain much, like why she would chose to behave like a comic book super villain during the invasion."

"If that is true, then I fear that there is no way to change her back to her former self." The geneticist said in resignation. "I do not know what will become of us in such a case. How will we know if she still be able to do what is necessary?"

"She didn't seem to have any problem killing the feral Zerg."

"But what will happen if we are forced to fight humans? Will she be able to slay them as readily? Will her guilt consume her afterwards?" That was a very good point. Even if she was an assassin in her human life, there is only so much slaughter a human mind can handle before breaking. "And this quest to free the Terran Raynor is but a shamefully transparent attempt to rationalize indulging her humanity."

"Even if you are correct, what are we going to do about it? We can't replace her or take control of the Swarms ourselves. She has done everything a Queen of the Zerg needs to: she has given us purpose and leadership, just as she should. She may not be the ideal candidate, but she is the only one we have. This Kerrigan is our queen, even if she isn't the one we remember. Besides, I rather like her this way. She seems much more open and willing to listen to the ideas of others now. Being less psychotic is always a plus. We can always teach her how to act like a proper Zerg if she does do something wrong."

"I…agree. We should speak to her at once!"

"No, we shouldn't, not yet. If we keep forcing our ideas down her throat, chances are she'll just push us away in turn. Human psychology 101, Abathur. We should take things slowly, let her find her way on her own. For now, just go about your business and let me handle it. I was human too once, remember. I think I'll have a better chance at getting through to her. I'll talk to her when the time is right. She'll come around, don't worry.

"I pray you are right, Tiberias. The fate and future of the entire Swarm hangs in the balance."

Great, no pressure there. In spite of his newfound grumpiness, Abathur did raise some valid points. The Queen _has_ changed and no one, probably not even her, knew exactly how much. She was not the Queen of Blades anymore, but she didn't seem entirely human either. Whether or not her change has been for the better remains to be seen.

_A/N Why yes, I don't approve of the Queen of Blades' depiction in Wings of Liberty. A person that used to posses such a depth of character was rewritten into a one-dimensional cardboard-cut-out antagonist. While I understand that she had to take a back seat in WoL, the terrible lines she was given are inexcusable. Whoever is in charge of the writing assignment at Blizzard better step up his game for HotS, or I'm coming after him/her with a frying pan and a pack of rabid flesh-eating ducks. Seriously, these are professionals and it took them 7 years to make the game. Surely they have the capacity to come up with dialogue more sophisticated than that!_

_I hope my depiction of Kerrigan is a bit better. On the other hand, if it is, it would raise some unfortunate implications. If a nerd in his bedroom can do better than a board of professionals, something has gone wrong somewhere._


	10. Chapter 10

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

Emperor Mengsk was pacing around his throne room. Normally, events would unfold around his whims. As a master of manipulation, he was usually the one pulling the strings. The only time he didn't was during the Brood War, a conflict he'd personally rather forget even if history remembered it as his 'great' victory over the UED. In reality, the only reason that he's still breathing is because Kerrigan, his former lieutenant turned Zerg queen, wanted him to live. She probably couldn't ask for a better revenge: in spite of all the power Mengsk had, he could always sense the hungering eyes of the Swarms, watching him and his empire from the shadows. Watching, and waiting. The threat alone unnerved him more than all his other enemies put together.

In an effort to stop her, the Emperor sunk billions into the Moebius foundation and their xenobiology projects. If the Zerg had an Achilles' heel, they'd find it. As an added bonus, it gave Valerian something to do. Maybe the crown-prince would learn to be useful somewhere along the way. Maybe.

When Narud came to him with his Protoss-Zerg hybrid project, the Emperor's funding finally seemed to bear fruit. A creature like that, once controlled, as Narud assured him it would be, would give the Dominion the power it needs to fight the Zerg on equal terms. How the doctor managed to create such a thing, Mengsk didn't know, or care for that matter. As much as he disliked being kept out of the loop, there were some things even he couldn't understand. Between the doctor's rambling about ancient artifacts, epigenetic silencing, and his preposterous accent, talking with Narud about anything related to science was like being hit on the head repeatedly with a hammer. Arcturus Mengsk was a smart man, nothing less than a genius, but even he had his limits. Relying on Valerian to translate the techno-babble into normal spoken English was just too embarrassing for the most powerful human in the sector, so he let the two do their thing more or less unsupervised. As long as they provided results, it really wouldn't matter. He was wrong. Very, very wrong.

His first clue should have been when Valerian insisted he'd free Tychus Findlay and let him persuade Raynor's Raiders to collect some artifacts. These artifacts were supposed to be the final component needed to control the hybrids. Though the emperor was assured that he'd have a finger on the man's kill-switch if he turned rogue, letting a criminal like Findlay loose didn't seem like such a good idea, even if he would lead Moebius to the artifact. Why did they need that damn thing anyway? Oh yes, 'to facilitate the hybridization of the Protoss and Zerg's nervous systems by silencing their respective rejection mechanisms through the use of psionic emanations in order to stabilize and control their behavior.' Why couldn't he just say 'to get their brains working so they won't try to eat us'? It almost seemed like they didn't want him to fully understand what the artifact was capable of. Given how events have transpired, he could probably be forgiven for his suspicions.

Apparently Valerian found a way to turn the artifact into a Zerg repellant behind Narud's back. Or so the good doctor claimed. Mengsk had a 'sixth sense' for reading people, and he felt that Narud wasn't entirely honest about his little toy. Perhaps the doctor knew, perhaps he didn't, but even he couldn't have foreseen what Valerian was going to do once the artifact was completed. Taking half the fleet from under his father's nose, teaming up with Raynor, getting him to successfully lead an invasion force to Char, and locking him up afterwards to take all the glory; it was very impressive. Who would have thought that wimpy excuse for a crown-prince would have it in him? The Emperor would even have considered it admirable if he didn't lock Warfield up and tried to use Kerrigan to gain enough popularity with the public to commit a silent coup. His son was stretching the Emperor's patience to the limit. The fact that the prince's plan seemed to be working didn't make the situation any less infuriating.

All this wasn't what bothered Mengsk the most. There was a tiny kink in Valerian's plan: the Zerg managed to break Kerrigan free. How or why wasn't important. All that mattered is that the most powerful psychic in the sector was on the loose again. While there was no telling what she'd do now that she has her broods back, the Emperor knew that it probably wasn't in his, or the Dominion's, best interest. How long did he have before she would be strong enough to come after him? Dammit, she should have been killed when they had the chance. She _would_ have been killed if it weren't for that damnable pirate Raynor stopping Findlay before he could finish off the Zerg problem once and for all. Arcturus sighed. Getting on Raynor's bad side was probably the second biggest mistake of his life.

In a way, Mengsk saw himself as the chess master of life. The thought of having someone beat him at his own game was downright shameful. However, he wasn't out of the game yet. Sure, he lost some valuable pieces, but his opponent forgot to notice one of Mengsk's rooks: the completed artifact. The fleet was still loyal to him; making the artifact mobile and finding troops to escort it around the sector shouldn't be a problem. Even if Kerrigan somehow managed to regain control of her broods, the artifact could wipe them out with ease. Perhaps the situation was salvageable after all.

**Prison facility, Char**

Every man has a breaking point. A moment or an event where he just can't take it anymore. Hope, dreams, idealism; whatever meaning they once had, whatever strength you could draw from them just isn't enough anymore. For Jim Raynor, that moment was growing nearer by the minute. His Raiders, once beacons of hope and freedom, have been reduced a caged heap of anger and sorrow. At least their anger was directed at the Dominion and not at him. It provided little consolation for Raynor, however. They were his men, his responsibility. He just couldn't shake the feeling that he had failed them by allowing them to be locked up like this. To make matters worse, he didn't even have any booze to drown his sorrows in.

Raynor chastised himself for his thoughts. Now, more than ever, he needed to stand tall. If _he_ lost hope, his men would follow soon after, along with any chance of ever getting out of this place. If he was going to get lost in his thoughts, they better involve Valerian, Arcturus, and a gun.

General Warfield entered the room, dressed up in his CMC power armor. "I thought you were arrested too?" Raynor asked. "Doesn't seem very smart of the Dominion to let you walk around in fully-armored."

"Don't get any ideas, they haven't let me off the leash." Warfield pointed at the ghost hiding in the corner. "Officially, I'm still in charge of the invasion fleet, directing the 'purging of this planet'. Apparently I'm too famous to simply disappear in some prison cell. Lucky me."

"So you just sit here twiddling your thumbs?"

"No, I've decided to help my boys clear the planet, even if I have to do it from here. The only good Zerg is a dead Zerg, so I don't see any harm in helping out. I'm not putting the lives of my men in the hands of that incompetent moron Valerian sent to replace me. Don't know what's gonna happen to me after this is over, though. They'll probably drop me in the nearest volcano and tell the people I tripped."

Raynor chuckled. "I hear ya, General. You gotta do what you gotta do."

"Hmph, do I? I still don't know what Valerian's planning and I don't like the thought of being used and double-crossed like that again."

"Well, you'll get used to it. Do you think he's doing the right thing?"

"I think _he_ thinks he's doing the right thing. Me, I'm not so sure." It was hard to disagree with the general when you're imprisoned too.

"So, how's the bug bustin' coming along?"

"Worse than I'd hoped, better than I'd feared. Most of the surface has been cleared, but the underground tunnel network is massive. I'd figure it'll take several years to clear the whole planet with troops and seismic charges. At least in the tunnels their numbers won't count for much. Our losses have been…acceptable." The general's expression turned grim. He really regretted not being there for his men. "I just hate sending my boys down there with the order to shoot everything that moves. I wish there was a better way."

"What about Sarah? They won't give us a TV in here and the guards have been strangely quiet about it when I asked."

"About that…Right. I have good news and really, really bad news. I've kept my ears to the ground and found out that the Dominion no longer knows where she is."

"What do you mean, 'no longer knows where she is'? Don't they have her guarded in a cell, or something?" As much as the commander hated to admit it, Kerrigan was the most wanted criminal in the sector now. There's no way Valerian and his cronies would let her out of their sights.

"They did, but she was busted out."

Raynor's expression suddenly turned into a ear-to-ear grin. "Zeratul, you magnificent bastard. I knew you'd come through in the end."

"Zeratul?"

"A high ranking Protoss dark templar and a old friend of mine. We fought together on Aiur against the original Overmind four years ago. He is the one who told me not to allow Kerrigan to be killed, or he thinks the universe will end. 'Figure he must have known about our invasion and followed Sarah's transport after the battle."

The general paused, trying to muster the courage to talk. "Raynor…I don't know how to tell you this. It wasn't your Protoss buddy who freed her, it was the Zerg."

It is funny how fast a person's emotional state can change. How one can switch from hope to utter despair in an instant. In Raynor's case, the word despair probably wouldn't adequately describe the feelings going through him in that moment. Part of him always feared the artifact would kill Kerrigan, so he mentally prepared himself for her death the best he could. Heck, he even swore to kill her after Fenix' death. To lose her like that would have been acceptable, but to lose her to the Zerg… in any other situation the sense of déjà vu would almost be funny.

The memories of his first encounter with the Queen of Blades still haunted his dreams. Weeks of visions from the ash world, fighting through hordes of alien monsters, only to arrive literally moments too late to save her. As he blasted his way into what appeared to be some sort of breeding ground, he noticed a strange chrysalis about to hatch. His gut told him to run, to escape before whatever was growing inside the chrysalis fully awoke, but he just stood there, frozen in horror as a creature appeared arose from it. A creature who seemed to radiate malice and evil in its purest form. A creature, both grotesque and beautiful at the same time. A creature that wore the twisted face of the woman he loved. Mother of god, what have they done to her?

"How…how could this have happened?" He stammered.

"I don't know how the Zerg managed to find her, but they hit the guards hard and fast. I didn't even think they were smart enough to pull off something like that, at least not without the Queen of Blades to guide them."

"Doesn't matter how they got her, it only matters that they did. If the Queen of Blades regains her power…well, I don't need to tell you what will happen to us, to humanity in general."

Matt Horner, sitting in the cell next to him, decided that now was a good time to speak up. He had always believed in his commander, even if Jim lost faith in himself. In spite of everything that has happened the past four years, the one thing Horner never lost was his depthless optimism. "Commander, we don't know what Kerrigan will do. There is no way of knowing if she's still the Queen of Blades. Chances are the artifact worked as intended and she's trying to fix things using the Zerg as her tool."

"Do you really believe that, Matt? What's keeping the Zerg from changing her back the moment they get their grubby hands…claws…tentacles, whatever on her." Even to Raynor, who wanted to believe with every fiber of his being that she'd become human again, it sounded like wishful thinking.

"Tell you what, if she comes busting us out, you're buying the drinks. Either way, we'll find out soon enough."

Raynor chuckled. Can't argue with that logic. Still, it did little to make him feel better. He didn't have the luxury of foolish optimism: the universe had disappointed him far too often. It seems like waiting to see what would happen was the only option. If the Zerg had infested her again…No, he couldn't think about it. He barely lived through it once, he wouldn't survive it happening again.

_A/N For the Raynor meets infested Kerrigan flashback scene, I used the book 'Queen of Blades' (or rather the wiki's synopsis of the book because I've not actually read any of the books, shame on me), not the version from the game. I just like it better this way._


	11. Chapter 11

**Agria**

"Well, the leviathan's all juiced up and ready to go at your command, my Lady." The creature confirmed Tai's statement with a satisfied growl. The valley below them had been almost completely mined out and it's riches turned into zerglings or nourishment for the ship. Kerrigan decided it was best to move on before the Dominion came looking for them. Finding out where to go next was another matter, however. The Queen knew she had to expand her brood if they were to survive, but finding the few broods that have managed to live through the past few weeks was difficult. Most of the still-living broods had gone into hiding or had simply fled the sector altogether. They'd have to hurry, or else there would be no Swarm left to unite.

"Izsha, have you found any leads to the other broods yet?"

"One, mistress, but we will have to move quickly to get to them. There are several Dominion transmissions originating from Char requesting additional reinforcements of marines and demolition teams. Apparently they are having a great deal of difficulty dislodging one of our broodmothers from the tunnels. She has been directing the Zerg that survived the invasion and saving the eggs in the underground birthing chambers. It appears that the Terrans believe her brood is rapidly becoming strong enough to be a genuine threat to them."

"Impressive. I suppose we could use her help. Do you know anything else about this broodmother."

"From the combat footage attached to the transmissions, I'd say it's probably Za'gara."

"Za'gara?" Tiberias spoke, with a hint of surprise. "That crazy, old hag is still breathing? Figures, she'd never let herself be killed by the Dominion. It would be far too embarrassing to her."

Kerrigan could sense a story here. "Have you worked with her before?"

"Several times, yes. She seemed to like former humans like myself. Probably liked our ability to think outside of the box. Not to mention that we are generally much better at predicting human actions than 'pure' Zerg are. Very useful when you are dealing with particularly resourceful Terran commanders."

"How is she, personality-wise? Will she join me willingly? That mutant overlord didn't."

"Za'gara is one of the wisest beings I know, my Lady. Even if she thinks she can beat you, a simple show of force would be enough to convince her. She won't fight to the death if she believes there is a way out. Besides, we have a small army of zerglings in the hold. She's strong, but there is no way her force is stronger than ours, even under the best of circumstances. She wouldn't be able to control them if her brood was larger than what we have sitting in the chambers. We'll be fine." Not the answer Kerrigan was hoping for. Why can't they just follow her like good little pets? Would she have to fight every last one of them? Then again, she wouldn't work for someone without good reason, either, especially if that someone rules by mind control. The Zerg could hardly be blamed for sharing the sentiment.

"Very well, take us to Char, then." Suddenly, Kerrigan realized just where she'd sent her leviathan to. "Wait, she's on Char? Isn't the entire Dominion armada hanging in orbit around that planet?"

"Not anymore, mistress. The Dominion is aware of the fact that you have escaped and have moved much of their fleet to their colonies. I believe they fear a counterattack. The Zerg on Char are disorganized and largely driven underground, so a large fleet presence was deemed unnecessary. We will be able to land undetected." Izsha reassured her.

"I'd suggest we land the leviathan near a tunnel entrance, jump out and let the ship float about in high orbit. You, me, Larry, and a small batch of Zerglings should be enough. The Leviathan will be able to sense the presence of any humans hanging around, allowing us to avoid them if we run into them. As much as I would like to strangle them with their own intestines, it would be best to not to attract any more attention than we need to." Cain was right, although it struck the Queen as odd that a Zerg would want to avoid confrontation. His plan seemed like an unusually human approach to the problem. Then again, most of his plans were. Interesting.

"Do we know where the Dominion _is_ looking?" Kerrigan asked. "I doubt they are just going to sit there waiting for us to come to them."

"There are strangely few transmissions regarding your escape." Izsha explained. "It is likely that they have realized that we can intercept them and are now using other channels. However, they fear you more than anything, so they are probably forming plans to eliminate us as we speak."

"Hmm. Alright then, set course for Char. Oh, and try not to be detected."

The leviathan growled like it felt insulted. The creature took off so suddenly that Kerrigan was almost knocked off her feet. Right, mental note: Don't anger the ship.

**Tunnel System of Char**

The ground shook as the seismic charges did their work. The tunnel behind her collapsed, sealing her away from the surface and the rest of her brood. Za'gara cursed the humans as she felt her the last of her surviving minions being cut down on the other side. As least she managed to escape with her life, if only barely. She lost one of her talons, and her armor was cracked and blistered from the flamethrowers the firebats used on her. She managed to cripple several of her attackers in return though. Unlike humans, Zerg could recover from any wound short of death. If there was such a thing as a defining quality among the Zerg, it would be perseverance. She would escape yet again, while the humans would have to tend to their wounded.

The tunnel in front of her seemed to lead down, deeper into the network. The broodmother wondered if the Terrans were actually trying to kill her or just contain her beneath the surface. If they wanted to do the former, they weren't doing a very good job. The seismic charges, while lethal to anything near them, often did little more than bring the cave down on top of them, making the hunt for any survivors on the other side difficult, if not impossible. This had been her saving grace many times already: when the humans tried to blow her up, she'd slip away in the chaos following the detonation. Sure she had to outrun a few lava flows, but thus far she managed to get away every time. Part of her wished the Queen of Blades had granted her longer legs. The collection of limbs she was gifted with wasn't designed for running away. Why they weren't, she'd never know. Maybe the Queen wanted to give the other powers a fighting chance.

However, even the humans should know by now that trying to contain a Zerg is not a good idea. It would only be a matter of time before the Swarm would find a way to burrow through the rock and escape. The conflict seemed more like a planet-wide version of that bizarre Terran game called Whack-a-Mole. Every time they managed to bring the hammer down on one group of Zerg, another one would pop up. Za'gara wondered who would give up first in this game: the Zerg were fighting for their very survival, but the Terrans were relentless. Still, they never quite managed to finish the job.

As the broodmother walked down the tunnel, looking for more Zerg to rebuild her brood with, she felt a presence entering her mind. It felt strangely familiar and was more powerful than any of the Terran ghosts that she had encountered. Was it…no, that was impossible. The Queen of Blades died during the invasion, there is no way she could be back. Death doesn't work like that in this universe. The presence did not go away, however. In fact, it seemed to 'focus' on her, trying to establish a link. What was this thing? It felt similar to the Queen, but it was much weaker and there was something off about her. Was this some sort of Terran trickery? Were they trying to take control of the Swarm by imitating their Queen? Woe be upon any of the humans responsible for this travesty! Za'gara forced the presence out of her mind and sealed it off from the outside. It might make finding more Zerg harder, but at least she wouldn't be forced to serve some under-evolved weakling against her will. The broodmother pressed on with renewed fervor. Whoever was the source of that presence might come looking for her. She needed to be ready.

**High Orbit, Char**

"Dammit, she forced me out." Kerrigan said with a sense of disappointment in her voice. She had hoped the broodmother would at least hear what she had to say. It could have made their eventual reunion a little less awkward and potentially violent.

"You have changed since she last met you. It is only natural that she would be suspicious. Even if she wasn't, you have been weakened. If Za'gara believes herself stronger than you are, she will oppose you." Of the many skills the infested adjutant possessed, sugarconing wasn't one of them. At least she wasn't afraid to tell her queen the truth, no matter how uncomfortable it was to hear. "If she is, we will serve her once you are dead."

The queen turned to her adjutant. The thought of her servants serving under someone else seemed strangely repulsive. "I'll kill you all before I let that happen."

Kerrigan turned her attention to the surface of the planet. More specifically, she turned to the base where her Primary hive once stood. There were a multitude of voices within: some stern and suspicious, others angry and afraid. It felt more like a prison than a military headquarters. One voice stood out, however. It was feint, no stronger than the voices around it, but its existence alone triggered memories and feelings within the Queen's mind. There was only one person she knew who could do that to her…

"Jim…"

"My apologies, mistress, but I have unable to find any transmissions relating to Commander Raynor's current whereabouts or that of any of his men." Izsha seemed surprised by the sudden outburst of emotion from her queen.

"He's here, Izsha, on Char. And so are the Raiders."

"Mistress, apart from the Hyperion powered down in orbit, there is no evidence of them being there: No transmissions or records that they are still on-planet. What makes you believe otherwise?"

"I can feel him. He's…afraid. Afraid for his men. And for…me?"

"Would make sense, he does love you after all." Tai chimed in with a disdainful tone in his voice. Kerrigan considered berating him for it, but realized it would be pointless. To Cain, humanity was weakness, and it was unlikely that anyone would be able to convince him otherwise anytime soon. Also, she didn't want to show her feelings to her underlings. She wasn't sure how strong her position as queen was. She couldn't risk showing anything that could be interpreted as a flaw. "As for keeping the Raiders on Char, well, it's a big ball of lava filled with Zerg. Escape is damn near impossible, at least not without a little outside help. You probably won't find a better world to use as a prison. Being double-crossed and captured also explains why the Raiders seem to have vanished without a trace."

Sarah wanted to reach out to Jim, tell him not to worry, that she's fine and that she was coming to get him out, but she was rudely put out of her concentration by a psychic incursion from another. Someone was trying to get into her head. A very capable someone. The attacker masterfully parried and dodged the Queen's counter-attacks while still keeping up the pressure. Was this a Dominion ghost? If he (or she) was, he was a damn good one; at least a PI of 9, maybe even a 10. Not good enough, though. Being trapped inside your mind while some alien malevolence mentally tortures you teaches a person a trick or two about mental warfare. Deflecting the ghost's attacks became easier with a little effort, and the assailant seemed to tire from the Queen's relentless attacks. When Kerrigan finally found an opening, she pushed her advantage, brutally counter-attacking with the full force of her powers. She sent the attacker reeling back in surprise and severed the link between them an instant after. The queen was impressed; both at the abilities of the ghost and her own. She was always good at the mind games back at the Ghost academy, but she didn't remember being this good, or having that much raw power at her disposal. Being a Zerg queen does have its perks. Nevertheless, she didn't want to counter-attack or reach out to Raynor at the moment. The humans knew that she was here, even if they didn't know exactly where or why. The risk of revealing her intentions, or any information that could be used against her was too great.

"My Lady, are you alright?" Cain was staring at her like she just had a seizure. To an untrained eye, it might have looked like she did.

"I'm fine, thank you. A Dominion ghost tried to get into my head. They must know we are here now."

"Do they know where we are exactly, or why we have came here in the first place?"

The Queen narrowed her eyes. "Please, Tiberias, remember who you're talking to." Okay, that came out a lot cockier than she wanted.

"Of course, my lady, my mistake."

"We better get ready. We'll be relatively safe once we're underground, but I'd rather not get shot on our way down."

Her subordinates politely bowed as she returned to her chamber to fetch her gun. On the way, she noticed a strange burning sensation in her forearms. Probably something with her gloves. She'd check it out when they'd return.


	12. Chapter 12

**Tunnel Entrance, Char**

The Leviathan gently touched down in a massive crater, another scar from the invasion. The Dominion had tried to collapse the tunnels that run underneath, creating this hole in the process. The blast had swallowed up the small hive that guarded the tunnel's entrance. There was nothing left of it but a smear on the crater's bottom. How ironic that this gaping wound would give the Zerg shelter from the Dominion sensors, the very people that created it in the first place. Indeed, if it wasn't for this crater, the Zerg would never have been able to land here safely. They were dangerously close to the human's central base of operations. Far enough to be out of sight, but too close to be out of mind…

"My Lady, you have been staring at the Terran base for a long time now. Are you sure you're alright? Is this about Commander Raynor?"

Kerrigan snapped out of her thoughts. She needed to focus. "We need him, Tiberias. Without him to take care of the artifact, we're all as good as dead, so we're going to break him out as possible."

"I understand, but I cannot help but wonder if you want him for something other than our dirty work."

"Do you doubt me?" The thought of dissent did not sit well with the Queen.

"Your intentions, your plan? No. Your motivations, however, I do. We all know you had strong feelings for him in your human life, and that those feelings sometimes got the better of you. You had more or less shed those weaknesses, but recent events seem to have brought them back. I'm…"

"…afraid?"

"…_rationally concerned_ that you're letting your feelings for him guide your actions. Now, there is nothing wrong with following your instincts, but if they make it impossible to think rationally, things could become rather…messy. With someone like you and the stakes being that high? You must understand, you are gambling the entirety of the Swarm in a mission to save a few humans. You have to make sure that the rewards are worth the risk. Taking such a gamble for a few pawns seems unwise. Especially since they nearly destroyed us before and will inevitably do so again the moment we cut them loose. It is their nature to fear us."

Great, a lecture. She could sense that there was more behind this than mere pragmatism, though. "Okay, I'll bite. Why do you hate humans so much?"

"They are our anathema, my Lady. They are so like us, yet they're everything we are not, at least in the ways that really matter. Look at their history, or the actions of virtually every human in this forsaken sector. They posses strength, adaptability and resilience, but instead of seeking truth, power, all they have found is new ways to murder one another and those around them. Rather than sharing what knowledge and resources they have with the rest of their species like we do, individuals seem more intent on keeping all their power to themselves. They are a primitive race, my Queen, in terms of mindset. There are only a few among them who understand what it means to fight for something greater than their own petty grievances, far too few to redeem them all. Whenever we try to correct these flaws through assimilation, they fight us with all their fury. I am almost ashamed to have ever considered any of them my own kind." God, Tiberias could be depressing. She made a mental reminder to be more careful in asking for his opinions. The worst part is that he was probably right, or at least more so than Kerrigan wanted to think. Apart from Jim, has there been anyone in her life that hadn't try to use her for their own ends at some point? Well, the fact that there might be only one good man left in this blasted sector made her mission all the more important. If there is any good in humanity, she was going to save it. "…Besides, that base gives me the creeps. I don't know what they are doing there, but I just can't shake the feeling that there is something walking around that is going to tear my mandibles off when we raid it."

He appeared to be right. There was something else inside that base. A presence that wasn't Jim's, or that of the ghost that tried to attack her on their approach. "Well, it doesn't surprise me that much that they'd build some kind of lab inside. Guess they are probably working on Zerg in there. No shortage of samples I suppose. Though it does kinda smell like there are Protoss in there too…"

"Protoss-Zerg hybrid…" Tai's eyes widened to a size the Queen didn't think his armored skull would allow. He ran off, muttering something about 'data' and 'samples'. Whatever this 'hybrid' was, it really spooked him. When she finally caught up with him, he was inserting a storage device into one of Izsha's data ports.

"And what exactly do you want me to do with this data?"

"You're and adjutant, Izsha. Do your adjutant thing…whatever…on it. It's the data I managed to…liberate from the Castanar facility. I want you to analyze it and tell me how to kill the thing they kept there."

"Excuse me, little confused here." Kerrigan interrupted. "Can anyone explain to me what's going on, and why you are so scared of that hybrid thing? I thought fear was a weakness?"

"_I know no fear_, my Lady." Tai said, obviously insulted by the insinuation. "It is a fault I've left behind a long time ago. That said, I'm not an idiot. The hybrid is more powerful than anything I have ever fought. When you became aware of its presence, you ordered me and a small army to investigate. That…abomination nearly slaughtered us all, like it was beating us to death with our own souls."

If it weren't for the seriousness in his voice, Kerrigan would have called him a drama queen. "Did you manage to kill it?"

"Yes, with bioplasmids from the Leviathan. Orbital bombardment, to use the Terran analogue. I am of the opinion that we need a better alternative when we face them in the future."

"And you're only telling me now because…"

"There were other, more pressing matters to attend to, like saving your skin from the Dominion. Needless to say, getting chased by the Dominion with both the artifact and an army of hybrids isn't covered by our health insurance."

"Right. Well, another reason for us to get the broods together. We better start looking for our broodmother then."

The tunnel entrance was covered with rubble, easily cleared by telekinesis, the leviathan's attempted digging, and a torrent of profanities. As Kerrigan walked into the tunnel, she wondered what else fate would have in store for her. These hybrids were just another on a long, long list of people who probably wanted her dead. What did she do to deserve all this? She never asked to be psychic, or to retain her sentience upon infestation. Why did the universe seem intent on making her its chew-toy?

**Sactum of the Hierarch, Shakuras**

Hierarch of the Protectorate. Supreme Leader of the Protoss. These were titles given to Artanis by his people. In theory, he was the most powerful Protoss alive. In reality, the petty squabbling and politicking of the various tribes left his hands tied. Every decision needed to be debated, every voice had a right to be heard, no matter how idiotic or short-sighted. While the system had its merits, it was inefficient to the point where critical decisions concerning the entire sector could not be made. At least not without angering someone or causing one of the tribes to threaten to leave. It took an unbelievable amount of patience to enter the council chambers and remind the tribes that they needed to stand together or perish alone. Strength lies in unity, one of Tassadar's many lessons that Artanis had taken to heart. Nevertheless, there were times where he was grateful for the fact he no longer carried weapons. If he had, quite a few tribe leaders would be missing their heads by now.

The Hierarch walked to his personal quarters, exhausted after yet another heated debate. He had hoped that the tribes would calm themselves after the defeat of the Queen of Blades. Plans for reclaiming Aiur had already crossed his mind. While the preparation of an invasion of that scale would take years, it would be a powerful rallying cry for his people. Many Protoss were willing to make any sacrifice for a chance to reclaim their beloved homeworld. Perhaps the Khalai and Nerazim might be able to finally see past their differences and embrace the idea that they were two parts of the same whole.

If only fate would be so kind. As it turns out, somehow, the Queen managed to escape her human captors. He prayed to Adun that the reports were wrong. While the Dominion is prone to bouts of insanity, surely the Terrans could not be _this_ incompetent. His observers, however, brought him proof that he could no longer deny: images from the Terran world of Agria, recently conquered by the Zerg. A feral brood being attacked and consumed by another brood. A brood led by a ghost. The close-up images of the apparent Zerg leader made the Hierarch's hearts skip a beat the first time he saw them. While the being looked far more human than he remembered, the resemblance was undeniable: it was Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades.

In the last meeting, this new revelation was discussed. Many of the tribes, led by Urun and Selendis, wanted to hunt her down and end the Zerg threat once and for all. Artanis would have agreed with them under most circumstances, but this was not one of them. The Dominion was aware of the Zerg leader's escape and kept its military on high alert. If the Queen stayed near Dominion territory, it would be nigh impossible to hunt her down without alerting the Terrans. The humans probably wouldn't mind if the Protoss killed her, but the Hierarch knew that leading an incursion into Dominion space would most likely be interpreted as an act of war. In spite of their technological advantage, the Protoss could not afford to fight an open war with humanity. While the Protoss would never openly admit it, the Terrans were powerful opponents: they managed to successfully invade Char, something the Firstborn could not have dreamed of doing.

Artanis hated to admit it, but the only thing they could do was to hunt down the feral broods outside human territory. If nothing else, it would weaken her in the long run if she ever managed to reclaim the entirety of the Swarm. If they were lucky, they might even catch the Queen off-guard.

"I am almost certain that your warriors will encounter the Queen in their effort to vanquish the Swarm once and for all, Artanis, but I must ask you to stay your wrath." spoke a heavy, familiar voice behind the Hierarch. A voice belonging to a Nerazim prelate who carried burdens that would have crushed a lesser being years ago. He must have read Artanis' mind. "Know that Kerrigan must live, or all will perish."

"Zeratul. You vanish for four years without a trace, and now you stand here in my personal quarters asking me to spare the life of the worst criminal our people have ever known. Were you any other, I would have you dragged away by the guards. Explain yourself!"

And so Zeratul spoke of his whereabouts the past year. Of Zamara and her warnings, the Xel'Naga prophecy, the hybrid on Zhakul, Duran, Tassadar, the Overmind, the Dark Voice, and finally the vision of the doom their species would face, should Kerrigan be killed. Artanis sat and listened in silence. He simply didn't know what to make of all this. As fantastic as the prelate's tale was, Zeratul was one of the few beings alive who could make him believe it. After all, he was probably the last person in the universe who would want to see the Queen of Blades go unpunished for her crimes. However, Artanis hadn't seen the Nerazim mystic in four years. It was entirely possible that he had simply gone mad during his exile.

"Zeratul, as much as I trust you, I cannot comply. Much has changed in the years of your absence. I cannot force my people to sit idly by and leave the Queen be. What am I supposed to say to the Hierarchy? That we can't seek out justice because _you_ say so? You are asking me to wager the lives of every Protoss in creation because of a doom prophecy shown to you by someone who was disintegrated before my eyes, who in turn received said prophecy from our greatest enemy. What am I supposed to tell them?"

"The only thing you can: the truth as I have shown you. I understand your predicament, but I would not ask this of you if I wasn't certain."

"Zeratul, surely you are not so naïve to think that they will believe a single word of what you just said. I doubt I'd be able to tell them of your prophecy without bursting into laughter, let alone convince them that what you say is true. You do not even know how she will save us. If she regains her strength, the Swarms could threaten us anew. I _cannot_ allow that to come to pass. The only thing I can do is order small-scale incursions, away from Terran space. It will weaken the Swarm and if we are fortunate, Kerrigan will not seek them out before we slay them."

"Hierarch, if your warriors find her…"

"Then they will surely attempt to kill her, and no force in the universe will prevent them from doing so. She has passed beyond our mercy years ago, Zeratul. You, of all people, should know this to be true."

"If she dies, our worlds are doomed. There will be no way to stop the hybrids from consuming us all."

"Yet if I do nothing, our people will descend into tribalism and consume themselves. I am sorry, there is nothing I can do."

Zeratul lowered his head and left the Hierarch to his duties. The Prelate knew there was nothing he could do now but wait and pray the Queen of Blades would find a way to survive.

_A/N I like writing dialogue for the Protoss. As you may have noticed, I am quite fond of using excessively extensive vocabulary, even when more facile expressions would suffice. The Protoss are so wonderfully hammy; every word they say sounds like it was spoken by a member of the Council of Elrond. Unfortunately, this is a novelization of Heart of the Swarm, so my focus will be on Kerrigan and the Zerg. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to enjoy the few Protoss lines I do write even more!_


	13. Chapter 13

**Tunnels, Char**

"Keep your eyes open boys. Them Zerg could be creeping anywhere."

"Aww shucks, Sarge, there aint no Zerg here no more. We fragged the last of them days ago. Besides, I'm wearing my lucky shirt today!"

"You mean that ugly red thing your momma brought for ya? No wonder we aint seeing Zerg. Damn thing's so hideous even the Zerg can't stand being near it."

"Laugh it up, Sarge. I've been fighting them creepy aliens for years and I ain't dead yet. It _is_ lucky. By the way, my girlfriend gave it to me."

"You, a girlfriend? Keep dreaming, private."

"Honest, it's true! Billy, tell Sarge about my girlfriend…Billy?" He turned to find his colleague resting on some of the nearby rocks. "C'mon now, this aint the time to be lying down on the…" The massive hole in his friend's visor indicated that Billy probably wasn't sleeping. "Umm, Sarge, we got a problem…Sarge?" No response. "Aww shucks…" The realization that his lucky red shirt wasn't going to save him this time was the second-last thing going through his mind before he died.

"Clear. Move out, before the next patrol comes around." Kerrigan signaled to her underlings. Sniping that patrol was regrettable, but necessary. There was no other way to get to the broodmother in time. However, the soldiers would be missed before long. While patrols were probably lost here all the time, they didn't want to risk angering the Dominion any further yet. The Zerg walked and slithered as fast as they could through the tunnel. Luckily, they didn't encounter anyone on their way.

Without further interruption, they reached a massive underground chamber dotted with eggs. A series of interconnected green pools dotted the area, filled with murky, acidic waters. Some of the eggs surrounding them were still viable, but the majority was not. Tiberias seemed slightly distressed by the sight, which wasn't that surprising when you think about it. To him, it must have been like a human stumbling onto a freshly bombed nursery filled with dying children.

Regaining her concentration, Kerrigan tried to speak with her broodmother one last time. She reached out into the Zerg's collective consciousness and forced her way into Za'gara's mind.

"Za'gara, don't force me out. It's me, Kerrigan, and I need your help."

"Get out of my mind human! Your kind has tormented us enough with your tricks."

Kerrigan had enough. She was the Queen around here, and she would _not_ tolerate disobedience. "Za'gara, as Queen of the Zerg, I command you to stand down and do as I say!"

"You…our Queen…No, you are not the Queen of Blades! You are a weak and pathetic Terran creature."

Again, the broodmother forced her out. On the opposing side of the pool, the roars of countless Zerg could be heard. The unmistakable sound of a brood marching to war.

"Well, that didn't work as planned." Tiberias deadpanned.

The queen's patience had finally run out. If Za'gara wasn't going to listen to her Queen, she'd have to be destroyed. The Zerg were far too vulnerable at this stage to afford dissidence. Not to mention that Kerrigan felt insulted by the broodmother's rejection. She was the Zerg queen, and no one else!

"So one of my broodmothers thinks she's too strong to follow my orders? We'll see about that." She approached the small hatchery and took control over it. Taking command seemed even easier now than it was on Agria.

"Za'gara's brood is currently huddled among the chamber's central spawning pools, mistress." Izsha spoke. "You stored millions of eggs here for further use. A fraction of them is still viable."

"I can sense the unhatched eggs. Now we just have to get to them before Za'gara does. Tai, Larry, you two go that way, and fetch as many eggs as you can. I'll go the other way and do the same."

"What do we do if we encounter Za'gara? She'll probably try the same thing."

"Kill her if you have to, Tiberias. If I can't have her, I'll have what's left of her brood when she's dead."

Cain nodded in approval. "As you wish, my Lady."

Kerrigan and a small guard force of zerglings moved towards the first batch of eggs. The creatures inside seemed ready to hatch with just a word. All they needed was a telepathic command and the touch of a Queen strong enough to lead them. Kerrigan was happy to oblige. Before she knew it, her host of zerglings had grown into a hissing, chittering throng. As powerful as her newfound swarm made her feel the Queen was not yet satisfied. She needed more if she was going to take the fight to Za'gara directly. A little variety in her swarm might help too. She turned to a stack of green, pulsating eggs near the edge of the acid pool, in particular those that seemed the most vigorous. While her human self had never seen this type of Zerg before, she knew their name regardless: Banelings.

"These eggs are different from the others. Some of the baneling eggs are ready to hatch. That could be useful. Abathur, some of the eggs seem immature. How do I hatch them?"

"Bring them to the birthing pond nearest to your point of entry, my Queen. I shall infuse them with a high-concentration nutrient fluid to speed up their maturation."

The Queen ordered a few drones from the main hatchery to move the pile of eggs and pressed on. The second batch of eggs would not be taken so easily, however. Za'gara must have taken control of the few remaining Zerg tasked with guarding this place. Strange that she didn't bother to hatch the eggs she had secured. Maybe she didn't get to it yet? Whatever the reason, it was her loss, and Kerrigan's gain. Two spine crawlers stood sentry there, along with a couple dozen zerglings. She tried to take control of them, but they did not answer. Apparently Zerg were loyal to their current leader, even if a more powerful one was nearby. The double-edged sword of Zerg behavior. Only one thing she could do now.

A few of the banelings were sent in first. Thankfully the broodmother did not properly control the defending zerglings, and the creatures ran head first into the walking acid bombs. A moment later, most of them were reduced to a puddle of goo by the detonation. The few survivors were subsequently disabled by Kerrigan's powers and torn to pieces by the loyalists. The spine crawlers tried desperately to stop the Queen's force, but to no avail. While they managed to poke many of the Zerg to death, weight of numbers proved to be too much for them. Kerrigan looked to her army. She had suffered some losses, but the pay-off was definitely worth it: a fresh host of zerglings, and another pile of baneling eggs for the birthing pond. She reached out to Tiberias and Larry to see how they were doing, and was pleased to hear that their egg hunting was going well. However, they hadn't encountered Za'gara or any Zerg loyal to her yet, apart from a few guards near the larger nesting sites. Strange. The broodmother seemed awfully passive. Taking a break while your enemy is growing stronger did not seem like a good idea.

The Queen heard a deafening hiss behind her. Looks like Za'gara wasn't sitting on her hands (paws, tentacles, whatever it was those broodmothers had) after all. The broodmother slowly marched forward and an army of rebel Zerg followed in her wake. Kerrigan wasn't worried, however. Numbers may win you battles, but not if your enemy wields psychic powers. Confidence and adrenaline pushed the Queen to join the fray. She hurled a wall of telekinetic force into the opposing swarm, sending the rebel zerglings hurtling back and the hydralisk guard reeling. Her banelings leaped into the dazed horde and detonated, quickly evening the odds. The broodmother was undaunted, however. She lashed out with one of her talons, but the Queen was too fast. She leaped aside and fired her rifle into her challenger, followed by a psychically thrown baneling into Za'gara's face. The broodmother howled in agony and fled. Kerrigan wanted to pursue, but the remaining rebel Zerg were too many. By the time she finished putting them down, her challenger had slipped away like a thief in the night. The Queen didn't mind to much. She knew there'd be a second round sooner or later to sate her thirst for the broodmother's blood. When the adrenaline wore off, she noticed that her right ear was bleeding. Apparently she wasn't as fast as she'd hoped. Za'gara's talon sliced her ear right open. A few centimeters to the left and the ex-ghost would have been decapitated. She realized that letting her bloodlust get the better of her was unprofessional and stupid. She'd have to be more careful in the future; she got lucky this time and it would be unwise to press it.

Though they were victorious, the last battle had greatly weakened the loyalist swarm. Although Za'gara was on the run and her current horde all but destroyed, she still possessed a sizable hive and could claim new eggs to replenish her forces. Kerrigan took her forces to the largest concentration of viable eggs that she could sense. That, combined with the horde Tai and Larry had been able to gather and the banelings from the birthing pond would be enough to force Za'gara to submit. The eggs would undoubtedly be guarded, but the Queen felt ready for anything the broodmother could throw at her. If only she knew…

Her target was protected by humans. Or at least creatures that once were humans. Apparently Tiberias wasn't the only one infested here. Kerrigan knew about infested humans as she had seen them many times, even before she became one herself. To see some that hadn't retained their sentience was something else entirely. The niggling thought that she was in part responsible for their predicament didn't help either. The scuffling husks were nauseating to look at. They seemed more like anthropomorphic ultralisk vomit than actual human beings. Their pained whimpering seemed to beg her to kill them. She was happy to help them. The Queen split up her forces and surrounded the defenders. Then, with a single telepathic command, she ordered the horde to attack. Kerrigan quickly sniped the infested marines, and the unarmed infested civilians crumbled quickly without fire support from their comrades.

Having to walk past the corpses of the former humans disturbed the Queen far more than she had hoped. Some part of her pitied them: being turned into a monster like that was a fate no one deserved. Another kept reminding her that she was ultimately responsible for all this. She knew this wasn't really the case, that she had as much control over the lives of these men as they did, but still. What scared her the most, however, was the part that saw the former humans and felt only contempt. The part that felt this was just evolution doing its thing. The part that saw her actions as a weakness being purged from the Swarm. Kerrigan forced her thoughts back. Now was not the time to go insane. The immature baneling eggs were in their birthing pond. Tai and Larry gathered all the forces they could, and her own horde was as strong as it was before her battle with Za'gara. The pieces were in place. Now was the time to neutralize that damned rebel broodmother.

"Abathur, infuse the birthing pond. Get those eggs to hatch for me." In what seemed like a blink of an eye, dozens of banelings hatched from the pool. A sea of waggling bombs poured out, eager to die for their new mistress. "And a moment after that, Za'gara will regret crossing me."

The Queen ordered the banelings to advance directly on the broodmother's hive. Za'gara tried to get her forces to hold them off, but the sheer volume of the green tide proved too much for her to fight. Within minutes her army was destroyed and her hive in ruins. When the metaphorical smoke cleared, Za'gara was somehow still alive, if only barely. While the Queen's underlings approached the fallen broodmother cautiously, Kerrigan casually walked towards her foe like she owned the place. Her calm steps belied the thirst for revenge against the one who caused her so much trouble.

"Please…I…I yield."

All this talk about her, being weak and pathetic, and Kerrigan was supposed to show mercy? "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your skull as payment for your little insurrection."

"I only did as you instructed."

"I told you to rebel against me?"

"You said the Zerg should be led by force of will. Your will is the strongest and I shall serve you."

Given the behavior of her Zerg companions, Kerrigan wasn't that surprised by her answer. The broodmother rebelled against her, but with a good reason. The other Zerg took some convincing too, after all. She calmed the more bloodthirsty part of her mind and decided that Za'gara was more valuable alive than dead. Kerrigan was the stronger, but that didn't make the broodmother weak and useless.

"Alright, Za'gara, you can come along." As the wounded broodmother tried to limb past her, she stopped the creature by holding her blade against her throat. "But if you try something like that again, I will have you head." Za'gara bowed down submissively. The message was loud and clear.

_A/N Okay, an action heavy chapter. These are, in my opinion, quite difficult to write. I really don't know what to do with them, and they don't seem to add all that much to the plot. That said, a Heart of the Swarm fanfic without action is like a western without horses, guns, and a scene featuring two guys standing on opposing sides of a road waiting for noon to blow each other's brains out: they really can't do without. Action scenes are absolutely necessary, but I still have trouble handling them. Please, please, please tell me how to improve if you're going to review. It will improve further action chapters (and there will be more, I assure you) which means more reading pleasure for you and more positive reviews for me. Now that's what I call a win-win situation._


	14. Chapter 14

**Leviathan, Char**

Kerrigan let of a sigh of relief as the searing heat from Char's atmosphere made way to the moist, relatively cool air from within the Leviathan. Most people probably wouldn't find relief in the bowels of a giant Zerg monster, but the Queen wasn't so picky anymore. The return trip was long and difficult, especially with Za'gara slowing them down. Kerrigan couldn't really blame her for it, though. Broodmothers weren't exactly known for their great speed to begin with and having half your legs blown off wasn't exactly conducive to one's ability to run. The trip did give the Queen plenty of time to think about the future. Even if Raynor succeeded in destroying the artifact, the Dominion and the Protoss were still very powerful foes. With some luck, the Protoss could be talked down if she showed them she wasn't a threat to them anymore. Again, Raynor could help here. The Protoss respected him, and his testimony might convince them to back down. Mengsk, however, would never make peace with her. Not that Kerrigan would accept a peace offering from the Emperor even if he made one. She gave everything for the Sons of Korhal and in return the bastard fed her to the Zerg. Mengsk betrayed not just her, but all of humanity when he became the very evil he swore to destroy. While she wasn't sure she could truly blame him for the actions of the Queen of Blades, if it weren't for him, the Queen of Blades might never have existed in the first place. By eliminating Mengsk, she'd do the entire sector, including herself, a favor. Maybe Tiberias could concoct a suitably poetic way to murder him. That giant knife he gave her was a good start…

Abathur and Izsha were awaiting their return. Abathur looked unusually excited. He probably had another interesting mutation to show her. First, however, was deciding their next move. The Swarm was a lot bigger now, and breaking Raynor from prison seemed like a possibility.

"Izsha, what are the defenses around Warfield's base like? Are we strong enough to attack them yet?"

"That would be unwise, mistress. While most of their forces have spread themselves across the sector, there are still far too many defenders remaining. Also, the artifact that destroyed the primary hive is still operational. It is probable that they will be able to activate it again before we can destroy it and destroy our forces in the process." Izsha showed a picture of the artifact on a salvaged Terran view-screen. The massive glowing pillar was surrounded by machinery and placed on a vehicle of sorts.

"It looks like they put the artifact on some kind of ship."

"A reconfigured Hercules Transport if I'd have to guess. The bastards must be trying to make it mobile. They'll be able to fly the thing to wherever we are and blast us when we try to make a move!" Cain exclaimed. In his mind, the only thing worse than a Zerg-obliterating magic artifact was one that was also disturbingly user-friendly.

Kerrigan thought for a while before she found the solution. "If the artifact is mobile, they'll move it to wherever they think the Zerg are invading. They'll probably send a lot of manpower along with it, leaving this base dangerously exposed."

The broodmother chuckled approvingly. "You speak of a diversion? A wise decision, my Queen. May I suggest the Dominion world of Tyrador VIII as a target? It is of great value to the Terrans and they will surely seek to defend it if we strike. Also, there is much we can learn of our enemies from the men of science that live there."

"I agree with Za'gara, mistress." Izsha said. "There are several small Zerg colonies that the humans have failed to remove. An attack, even a small one, might cause the desired response from the Dominion. I will see if I can uncover more information on the world and its defenders."

"Do that. The rest of you: dismissed."

Kerrigan's underlings split up and went back to their duties. Being Zerg, they didn't need any rest. The Queen thought their work ethic was quite admirable. Amazing how productive one can be if you can work for 8 hours per day longer than normal. Strangely enough, she didn't feel very tired either, despite the fact that she couldn't remember the last time she slept.

Before the Queen ordered the leviathan to take off, she wanted to see if there were any other Zerg on Char that she could easily claim. If she had a larger swarm, the subsequent battles would be much easier. She tried to reach out across the planet to find any that would follow her lead, but ended up disappointed.

"There are so few of my forces left on Char."

"When you were taken from us, most of your forces were aboard leviathans, being recalled to Char." Izsha explained. "They died out in the void fighting each other."

"I suppose I'll have to correct that then." Kerrigan said, mostly to herself. "I will rebuild the Swarm. I will make it stronger, better. And then I will crush Mengsk under my heel. Plot our course and take us out of orbit." With that, she marched off to Abathur's evolution chamber. The leviathan could only carry so many Zerg. If she wanted a more powerful Swarm, she'd need better Zerg as well.

Abathur was talking with Tiberias about a strange mutant zergling when the Queen entered. This winged zergling must be what Abathur wanted to talk to her about.

"Your majesty, may I present to you the new winged zerglings. They are much faster than the older strains and the additional cost to produce them is negligible."

"Certainly took a while. It's been days since we encountered these on Agria. Couldn't you just stick the gene in and be done with it?" Kerrigan asked.

"Well, we tried my lady, but we ran out of glue and couldn't find any stores nearby." Tiberias deadpanned.

Abathur let out a deep, pained sigh. Kerrigan wondered what hurt him more: her ignorance or Cain's incredibly lame joke. "My Queen, one does not simply 'stick genes' into a creature and expect them to spontaneously grow wings. It requires careful modifications and selections over many generations to create a new functional strain. For this creature, I had to modify the bone structure and muscle tissue, as well as…"

"Okay, I get the picture, genetic engineering is hard. Didn't mean to step on your toes." Science had never been part Kerrigan's interest, especially the kind that the Zerg used.

"But I have no toes to step on…"

"Figure of speech, Abathur. Now, how long will improvements like these take you?"

"Even with my ability to sense and weave genetic strands and cellular products, it may take weeks for a noticeable change to manifest. Creating entirely new strains will take even longer. However, if we were to find interesting life-forms to assimilate or strong mutagenic substances, that process could be sped up significantly. I will know what I need when I see it and will alert you when I do."

Kerrigan was hesitant to ask her next question. Part of her knew she was going to regret this, but she couldn't contain her curiosity any longer. "You said that you can see genes right? What do you see when you are looking at me?"

Abathur approached the Queen and inspected her closely. Kerrigan had to fight the urge to push the hulking creature out of her personal space. After looking at her for a few minutes, the Swarm's chief geneticist shirked away with what seemed like a worried look on his 'face'. It was obvious that he didn't want to share his findings. He glanced at Tiberias, who responded by urging him to tell her anyway. The Queen was a little confused. If Abathur was worried, should she be worried as well? Their opinions about what is and isn't something to worry about had differed before.

"Genetically, you are more or less identical to what you were as the Queen of Blades. The artifact destroyed most of the enhancements the Overmind gave you, but your genome itself was largely unaffected by its power. This is most likely for the best, as the genome is a most fragile thing. If the Terran's artifact could affect the genome, the artifact would have most likely destroyed it and killed you as a result. Regardless, I suspect your body will recover in time, even without a chrysalis. The process of assimilation can be slowed, but it cannot be undone. At least not permanently."

Abathur went on with the details of the damage the artifact did, but Kerrigan stopped listening. She did regret asking. The answer hit her like a boot to the face. She had always hoped that when this was over, she could still have a normal life. A _human_ life. It took every last shred of willpower she had not to break down then and there.

"How…How long before I turn into the Queen of Blades again?"

"The expression of your genetic enhancements is largely dependent on the environment. I cannot tell you how long this process will take, or what your exact phenotypes will be when it is complete. Your appearance or abilities at that point are anyone's guess. I can tell you that certain types of exposure will accelerate the process. If your body is physically strained, your strength and stamina will increase; if you are shot, your carapace will regrow itself and so on. This is also the reason why I do not approve of your insistence to wear that Terran environment suit. Zerg grow stronger when their bodies are challenged, and you are no exception to this."

"In short, your body will fix itself automatically when we are out and about and you'll have some measure of control as to how it will develop. However, Abathur, her Majesty's plan relies on the Terrans thinking she is human. I think she wants to know how long it will take before she can't hide her nature from them any longer." Tiberias clarified.

"I suspect a few weeks or months, especially with that suit. I suppose it is not entirely useless in that case."

"So we have a time limit, then." Kerrigan paused for a while, hoping to pull herself together. "For a Zerg, these are good things, right? What has you so worried then?"

Again, Abathur needed some urging to continue. "Your mind, my Queen, has changed. The Overmind used a form of psychic conditioning to suppress undesirable parts of your former personality and shape a new one in its stead. I know not how he performed this. You have been trying to replicate the effect yourself, but thus far, those projects have always resulted in mental problems or the death of the subject. The artifact apparently destroyed this new personality and the damage will not heal on its own. I do not know how to safely correct it myself, so you will have to learn to deal with your mind as it is."

"So, mentally, I'm the same person I was before the Zerg…recruited me."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that, my Lady." Tiberias interrupted. "Minds are influenced by conditions in the body. Take human teenagers or depressed people, for example. You will almost certainly be a different person than who you were before. We just don't know how much or what will happen when the hormones start to kick in."

"I'm a grown woman, Cain. I'm perfectly capable of controlling myself!"

"That's what I thought too, before my adrenal glands started to work. Let's just say, the results were…not for the faint of heart. However, I think this is a problem we can deal with to an extent."

"How?"

"Well…I suppose we could teach you. We can show you how to think and act like a proper Zerg could. Wouldn't be too difficult, since a lot of this seems to come naturally to you. Besides, you taught me how to be a Zerg, only right I returned the favor."

"What do you mean by 'comes naturally'?" Kerrigan asked, venomously.

"You've proven to be quite ruthless and efficient so far. You're able to dispense your wrath where needed, but you also know when not to, all without us needing to tell you. Those are the kind of things a Zerg leader needs if we are to survive. You are our only queen, you know. Can't let anything bad happen to you, now can we?"

"Well, thanks for the offer…I need some time to think about this all this. Excuse me."

Kerrigan returned to her chambers. She needed some time alone, some space, privacy and the ability to weep without being noticed. Tiberias was right, as much as she wanted to deny it. Taking control of the Zerg was disturbingly simple and her behavior seemed unusually cold and ruthless, even by her standards. There was no point in lying to herself about it. She was one of them. She would always be one of them.

To her, the position of Zerg Queen had always seemed like a temporary one. Part of her always thought that at the end of all this she'd be able to retire and live out the remainder of her time in peace. Away from Mengsk, away from everyone that hated her, away from the Zerg. She knew that she might need a little surgery or some pills in that case, but she always hoped, no prayed, that her infestation could be reversed somehow. To have that hope crushed was too much, even for her. Right now, more than anything, she needed a shoulder to cry on, or at least someone to give her a bucket for her tears. Yet here she was, stuck in a living ship, filled with creatures that would never understand what she was going through. Even if they did, they'd only see her emotional display as a weakness. To possess so much grief and to not have an outlet for it was probably the cruelest punishment the universe could inflict upon a soul. Deep down, Kerrigan felt that she might even deserve it. As much as she wanted to cry until her tears flooded the room, she couldn't. Not here, not now.

The Queen was through fighting for her own salvation. In the end, she was nothing more than a monster. Raynor and his men should have just nuked the primary hive from orbit with her in it. She knew she was damned no matter what she would do. No amount of good deeds or acts of atonement could ever wash away the blood on her hands. Nevertheless, she had to press on. If she didn't, she would be no better than the abomination the artifact destroyed, and the sacrifices Jim had made to free her would have been pointless. Kerrigan would make things better in the only way she knew how: by destroying the enemy. By destroying Mengsk. Maybe then, humanity might find peace, even if she never would.

_A/N Before anyone mentions Stukov: the canon doesn't state that he was 'cured' of his infestation, only that he was cut off from the Zerg collective mind. Also, we never got to see the long term effects, so I think it is safe to assume infestation isn't fully curable since I can't find any information saying otherwise. Of course, that doesn't mean that infested can't have free will._


	15. Chapter 15

**High orbit, Tyrador VIII**

Kerrigan braced herself as the hulking mass of the leviathan came to a halt high above the planet. She figured they had only one shot at getting this right, so she didn't want to rush in unprepared.

"Analysis complete, mistress." Izsha's more mechanical personality seemed to have taken her over again. "Massive Dominion presence spotted, far too powerful for us to fight directly. However, there is a target in the ruined southern suburbs of Gramercy City that would suit your plan. Several of the facilities have already been re-occupied by various scientific corporations and there is a small military presence defending them. A small hive cluster remains in the ruins that we can utilize to spawn the forces we need."

The Queen frowned. "Seems too convenient. Why hasn't the Dominion destroyed it yet?"

"Before the Char invasion, the Dominion managed to slay the broodmother in overseeing the operations here. With their leader dead and you lost, the Zerg here remained as they were, waiting for their next order. Ruined cities are easier to defend and thus, a direct assault would be too costly for the humans. Most likely, the Dominion did not see these Zerg as a threat anymore and decided that a policy of containment was the best option until a larger force could be spared to provide a more permanent solution."

"They're just leaving them be, unattended? They can't be that stupid."

"They are not, mistress. There are many unmanned drones surveying the area. If we were to make a move, the main human force would be alerted unless the drones are destroyed before they can signal their allies. I can slow down their communications from here long enough to buy you the time needed to take them out. If you fail to do so, the main army would likely send a contingent of soldiers to destroy us. Our efforts will be for naught if they catch us before we can make the humans think we are truly invading. The hatcheries will allow us to spawn an army quickly. When our forces are strong enough, we can cut a path through the remains of the city…"

"And right into that southern Terran base. Once we're inside, we can hack into their communications grid and make the fleets at Char believe the planet is being overrun. We better get going and hope that they won't figure out we're bluffing." The Queen looked at the tactical map and noticed something that troubled her. "Izsha, you didn't say anything about the civilian presence here."

"My apologies, mistress. I did not view them as relevant. There are only a few settlements on our path. They pose no threat to us and can be swept aside with ease."

"We're not killing innocent people, Izsha. Find another way around or another target if you can't."

"My lady, this is by far the easiest target and taking a longer route will put us at greater risk of being discovered." Tiberias interrupted. "Not to mention that they are a useful source of recruits. The extra manpower will make the attack on the Dominion base more believable and much more likely to succeed. If we're lucky, some of them might even survive with their sentience intact. At this stage, we should take every advantage we can get."

Hearing that made Kerrigan's blood boil. Truth be told, his plan was perfectly logical to a Zerg, but her human side was disgusted by the fact that he would even consider committing such an atrocity.

"Tiberias, does the word 'morality' mean anything to you?"

In spite of the venom in her words, the infested Terran did not seem that surprised by her question. He probably expected having this debate sooner or later. "My lady, we are Zerg. If what we do benefits the Swarm, we're doing the right thing. If they don't, then we don't. That's the way we are. Survival is a privilege, not a right. If you are too weak to defend yourself, you shouldn't be wasting the few resources this universe has to offer."

"And what about slaughtering innocents, hmm?"

"There is no such thing as innocence in this universe, your majesty. Even the civilians can help the enemy in the war effort against us. They could be making weapons, providing food for the soldiers or giving birth to the next generation of gun-slinging psychos ready to barge down our door. Like metal or biomass, they are a resource; one that we should use before the Dominion can. I don't slaughter people for my own sadistic pleasure. If I kill, I do so because it helps the Swarm in some way. I'm a agent of the Swarm, not a crazed gunman."

"I wonder if there is any difference in your case." The Queen didn't even attempt to hide her disgust anymore.

"Well, of course there is. One's a job, the other a mental disorder!"

"Is it really that simple to you? Kill or be killed?"

He simply shrugged. "Well, it's the law of the jungle, my lady. Kept me sane for the past few years, so it must be worth something."

"Look down, at the surface. Does that look like a jungle to you?"

"Umm … no." Cain said, unsure of where she was going with this.

"Exactly. Have you completely forgotten how humans think? Has it ever occurred to you that Raynor and his men won't be very willing to help us if they found out that we're still killing and infesting people? Your 'eat or be eaten' philosophy may have worked as an excuse if they were Zerg, but I don't think it will win you many friends among the Terrans. We live in a completely different world now. We NEED allies, and we're not going to get them if the Raiders still think we're the bad guys. Raynor cares about his men and the human civilians. I think he would rather rot in a Dominion prison than help us, unless we can convince him that the Dominion is the greater evil. So, until I tell you otherwise, we minimize civilian casualties. Killing, infesting, eating, whatever horribleness you're planning for them, get it out of your head. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal. I suppose the civilians will just run when we see them, so they won't get caught in the crossfire, if we're careful."

"Good. Let's get down to the surface, then. Our Dominion problem won't solve itself."

**Gramercy City, Tyrador VIII**

The sacs landed with a soft splat on the streets of the ruined city. What was once a center of wisdom and learning had been reduced to a creep-covered husk. At this point, however, Kerrigan had seen far too many ruined cities like this to be bothered by it. As sad as it is, everyone who sees enough of the Zerg will probably start thinking like that eventually, assuming they live long enough.

Izsha's intel was correct: this suburb's hatchery was still intact. The queen was about to start spawning more units when one of her overlords warned her of a drone flying overhead. She couldn't let the Terrans discover her base yet and quickly shot the scout down before it could transmit their location. While the drone was unarmored and fell apart after a single shot, she knew it wouldn't be the last and that she probably couldn't catch all of them herself.

"Firefly drones." Tiberias stated with a degree of annoyance in his voice. "I hate these things. If you see them, Dominion soldiers usually aren't far behind. Simple, efficient and easy to field en masse in battle, just like the rest of the military. Some of the newer model ravens can deploy them. They'll just keep coming for us until we shoot the ravens down."

"Well, until we find them, do we have any options in terms of air defense? I can't shoot all these things down by myself."

Abathur spoke up. "I have the solution for you, your majesty. Our Queens can target their flyers, as well as spread creep, aid hatcheries in spawning more larva and heal our forces. I believe you will find them very useful. Be cautious though, they are rather slow when not moving on the creep."

"Great, a Swiss Army Zerg. Just what I always wanted."

"You are welcome, your majesty!" Abathur could turn anything into anything, but he still had no grasp of sarcasm. Kerrigan couldn't decide if that was funny or sad.

Another drone flew overhead. A freshly spawned queen, seemingly eager to prove itself, took aim and shot it down with a pair of spines. The ex-ghost was impressed by the creature's range and accuracy, but the fact that it took two spines to take out a lightly armored drone was a little disappointing. It seemed like queens were intended to scare away enemy flyers rather than actually shooting them down. If the Terrans had heavier fliers like battlecruisers, these queens would be next to useless. Another reason not to get caught.

"Izsha, where are the ravens? I want to bring them down before their drones catch us."

"Scanning. Secondary targets found. Transmitting coordinates to you, mistress. These craft appear to be guarding the reclaimed facilities."

"Military weapon labs?"

"No, civilian labs and chemical storage plants. None are linked to Dominion military or the Moebius Foundation. It is unlikely that they contain anything that will directly benefit the human war effort against us."

"There could be something interesting in there for Abathur. Might be worth checking out. I think the banelings could use an overhaul…"

Cain was quite surprised at his Queen's last remark. "You're learning, my Lady. I'm impressed." Kerrigan quickly scanned his mind, wondering if he wasn't being sarcastic again. Strangely enough, he was sincere. That probably wasn't a very good sign.

Anyway, time to move on. The first of the facilities was close by. Its raven was hovering overhead, scanning for targets. Kerrigan gathered several of her queens at maximum range and ordered them to fire simultaneously. The craft was ripped apart before any of its systems had time to react. As it fell to the ground in a thousand flaming pieces, the humans in the facility panicked and ran as fast as they could to the underground shelters. At least that made looting the building for mutagens and supplies without killing the civilians much easier. She ordered a group of drones to take everything of value and left for their next target. To her surprise, the creep had already spread throughout much of the suburb, ending a few dozen meters away from the base. It was amazing how quickly the queens could get it to spread.

It struck her just how difficult it must be for humans to stop a Zerg infestation. She knew from her experiences with the Sons of Korhal that creep made the Zerg much more dangerous and was all but indestructible unless you find and destroy its source. It was difficult to believe that anyone would even consider opposing a direct Zerg invasion, let alone lead an assault on their main base of operations on Char. Yet they did it anyway, and _succeeded_. Whether that spoke of their courage or their desperation, she couldn't decide. Either way, she realized that she should never underestimate humans like the Queen of Blades did. She was lucky that the Terrans didn't count on anyone being able to break her out of Elysium's prison. They probably wouldn't make that mistake twice.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of engines and tires screaming on the asphalt.

Cain's expression turned more serious. "Damn, hellion patrol. We better scatter and get ready to ambush them, my lady."

"What's a hellion?"

"Flamethrower buggy. Don't you remember? Wait, of course you don't, they didn't have those four years ago. Think a vulture driven by a firebat." Kerrigan remembered firebats. As a ghost, they were generally on the top of her mental target list whenever she had to eliminate human infantry. Environment suits could protect against the elements, and sometimes even against bullets, but they were no match for a wall of fire. She immediately ordered her zerglings to take cover in the ruins and prepare for the intruders.

The hellion pilots steered their buggies down the street like maniacs. Considering that they drove a lightly armored firebomb-on-wheels, she was probably right to question their sanity. Kerrigan took aim for one of the wheels of the lead vehicle and shot it to pieces, stopping the buggy dead in its tracks. The second could not evade in time and rear-ended it, rendering both inoperable. The other buggies managed to stop before they joined the pile-up, a vulnerability which the Zerg were determined to exploit. The Zerglings leapt from their hiding places and onto the stationary vehicles, shredding everything they could get their claws on. Some of the drivers tried to use their flamethrowers, only to find that they had been reduced to scrap. The few that managed to fire their weapons ended up incinerating both their comrades and the attackers as the flames detonated their damaged fuel tanks. One of the drivers managed to turn his vehicle around in an effort to escape the carnage. As he drove away, Tiberias leapt onto the buggy and tore the driver out of his seat and into a swarm of zeglings. He jumped off the vehicle just in time to shield himself from the blast as the hellion slammed into a wall.

"I think they were scouts. Humans must be wondering why their Raven has stopped reporting." He said as he painfully tore a piece of shrapnel out of his back. Zerg may be much more resilient than humans, but they weren't immune to pain. "We're running out of time. They'll probably call for help from the base camp soon."

Kerrigan nodded in agreement. She decided to spit her forces up. There were two Terran facilities nearby that she wanted to take, but she felt she could entrust that task to her minions. The queens were smart enough to understand how to not-kill someone and it was unlikely that they would disobey. Two small groups of queens, each backed by a small group of zerglings, marched off in their respective directions. The majority of her swarm stayed with her and prepared for the main assault.

The Terran base was only lightly guarded: a few bunkers at the choke points, backed up by a platoon of infantry, a few goliaths, and another raven. Using the ruins as walls, they had a decent defensive position that would protect them against gunfire and prevented most attackers from rushing in without getting shot. Of course, it would do little against the horde of banelings that were morphing just out of sight. As soon as they emerged from their cocoons, they wriggled out of cover and towards the walls facing away from the bunkers. The structures, already weakened by the previous invasion, collapsed under the waves of acid bombs, and the Zerg poured into the breach. The raven tried to deploy auto-turrets in an effort to stem the tide, but was shot down by the queens just outside the base, using their long range to snipe it from a distance. The goliaths cut zerglings to ribbons with every shot of their autocannons, until, much to the horror of their pilots, the weapons were telekinetically ripped off their warmachines. Without support, the infantry crumbled before the merciless onslaught. The only thing that was spared thus far was the command center.

"Mistress," Izsha reported, "I have sent our transmission to Dominion High Command. It appears to be working. The main Dominion army on Tyrador is digging in and the fleet around Char has been redirected to this world as we speak. They are carrying what they claim is a 'Zerg repellant'. It is likely that they are referring to the artifact."

"Good. Raze this base to the ground. I don't want anyone alive to tell the others we've left." Kerrigan telepathically checked on all her forces and was pleased to find out they were finished with their tasks. One of the groups she had sent to ransack a facility reported some losses from a seeker missile, but at least the civilian casualties were very low. This mission turned out better than she expected: the road to Warfield's base was now open. Believing that she was rapidly outstaying her welcome, the Queen ordered the leviathan to land and come pick them up.

_A/N So, a mission showcasing the Zerg queen and their uses. Hopefully it didn't turn out too crappy. I am still not confident with writing combat chapters…_

_My apologies for my erratic release schedule. As much as I hate making the fans wait for updates, the university comes first and those damn nematodes aren't going to grow by themselves! Well, actually they do, but I think you get my point._


	16. Chapter 16

**Prison Facility, Char**

Boredom: the greatest enemy of inmates everywhere. If being robbed of your freedom wasn't bad enough, the inevitable insanity that follows from doing nothing would certainly be. At least Warfield was kind enough to order the guards to cut their prisoners some slack. This gave Raynor a wonderful opportunity to enjoy a nice game of poker with the good Captain. Well, enjoying might not be the right word for it: Horner took all his money days ago. Some people are just naturally good at making a poker face, it seems. The fact that his skill at the game won Matt his lovely wife is a testament to that…

General Warfield entered the room, once again with a grim expression on his face. The kind of expression a man like that would wear if he was in battle, or was expecting one soon. Curious. The guards didn't seem that agitated. If they were about to get hit, shouldn't they be the first to know? Nova entered right behind the aging general and ordered the guards to leave immediately. Whatever was happening, it must be big.

"Well, agent Nova, to what do I owe the pleasure? You'll have to excuse me for not getting you a beer; we've been a little short on the stuff lately." Being this snarky to a woman would probably be considered bad manners by most, but Raynor didn't really care. It was hard to expect someone to be courteous to the person that threw them in jail.

"So, you feel like playing games, hmm? How about a little show and tell?" Nova pulled out a data slate and showed the rebel a series of pictures. Warfield simply stood in silence. "Look at this, and this, and these. You know what these are?"

"They are pictures of a Zerg infested city. A lot of ruins and bodies. Not that much of a rarity anymore. Much as I hate to admit it, it ain't the worst I've seen. What's your point, anyway?"

"They are pictures taken from Tyrador VIII, attacked by the Zerg two days ago. Zerg led by her!" She showed a picture of what at face value seemed like an ordinary ghost fighting alongside the Swarm. The image was of poor quality, but was still good enough to see that there was something off about the appearance of this particular operative. That, combined with the fact that the Zerg weren't eating her, could only mean one thing. Sarah was leading them. Sarah was leading the Zerg.

"Jim," Nova said, in a strangely caring, almost motherly tone. "she's gone mad. She's murdered civilians and slaughtered an entire base worth of soldiers. Good men, whose only crime was trying to protect this city. That could have been you, or your Raiders. Help me stop her. Tell me everything you know about her, _anything_ that can help us find her before she hurts more people."

Raynor snorted in return. "Ya'know, when you put it like that, it almost sounds like you give a damn. I don't know where she is or where she's going to go next. Even if I did, give me one good reason why I should tell you. For all I know, you could have put the images together on a computer. If you wanna find her, go look for her yourself. Might wanna start looking near Mengsk's palace on Korhal. Wouldn't be surprised if you find her feeding that arrogant bastard to her pet monstrosities."

Nova looked at him in that peculiar way that only psychics seemed to be able to when they are trying to read your mind. The ghost was probably looking for any signs of deception. She wasn't going to find them. Raynor really had no idea where Kerrigan was, or indeed _what_ she was. Frankly, that last thought scared him more than anything.

"Now, if you really need me to help, giving back my ship and my crew would be a good start…" Nova had enough. She knew she wasn't going to get the answers she needed from him and decided to leave, leaving Warfield behind. "No? Well, was worth a shot, I suppose." Raynor turned to the general, who didn't seem to have moved a muscle this entire conversation. "So, what brings you here, General?"

"Nova wasn't lying about the attack, Raynor, but she did leave out a few details I though you would want to know. We've been trying to follow Kerrigan's movements, but apart from the attack on Tyrador, we have no track of her whatsoever. Nova is convinced that she came to Char before that, probably to pick up some reinforcements, but she doesn't know what the Zerg are after now."

"I'm guessing she's fixing to go after Mengsk. But why she hit Tyrador? Moebius left before the Char invasion, along with anyone else who could possibly matter. There is nothing there. Or is there?"

Warfield shook his head. "Well, not that I know off. My clearance was pretty high, and I still hear things from friends in high places. If there was anything worth losing over there, the Moebius boys next door would have gone ballistic. The only things that have been reoccupied were facilities on loan to civilian contractors. We sent a massive fleet, including the artifact, over there do destroy the Zerg, but I doubt they'll find much opposition. If you'd ask me, I'd say it's a diversion for something, but my 'superior' won't have any of it."

"I see. General, I need to know: how many did she kill?"

"It's what she didn't kill that surprised me. The soldiers were killed like Nova said, but when the fleet arrived to avenge them, they found nearly all of the civilians still alive in underground bunkers, even those that were directly in the path of the Swarm. The Zerg even seemed to have taken the long way around to avoid the larger population hubs. Call me stupid, but I can think of one thing that can stop a Zerg from wanting to kill something…"

"…Kerrigan's direct orders. She didn't want to kill the civilians. Maybe there is some humanity left within her after all." For the first time in days, a smile began to form on Raynor's face again.

"Or maybe that's what she wants us to think. I read up on your run-in with the Queen of Blades during the Brood War, Raynor. She's a clever one and I would trust her only as far as I could throw her;" He looked at her picture on the data slate and noticed that she didn't look all that heavy. "which in her case might be a bad example. Anyway, we have to assume that she wants something. Maybe from us, maybe from the Dominion, maybe from all humanity. Whatever she's up to, I doubt that it's got our best interests at heart. I can't shake the feeling that we're about to get hit, now that the artifact is gone. Like a storm is rushing outside and someone forgot to close the windows."

"Speaking of that artifact, does anyone even know what it does, other than kill Zerg? Some of the guards say it spooks them, hearing voices and all that. Same thing my crew had when it was still aboard the Hyperion."

The general frowned. "I wish I could tell you, but that Narud doctor won't even let me near the labs. 'Above my pay grade' he keeps saying. I have no idea what they are doing in there, although I do remember Narud being very angry about the artifact being shipped to Tyrador, claiming that it was 'vital to humanity's long term survival'. Arrogant jackass. Truth be told though, he scares me. Hell, this whole mess is scaring me senseless."

"You, scared? The great General Warfield that killed a Hydralisk with his bare hands? Well, I know the feeling. There is nothing more terrifying than an enemy you don't know anything about."

"I couldn't agree more. Just hope the Zerg won't come crawling out of the woodwork now that our fleet has left…"

**Leviathan, High orbit, Char**

"Scanning. Analysis complete. Terran fleet has left the system. Decrease in comm. chatter indicates that most of the ground forces are gone as well. No emanations from the artifact have been detected." Izsha droned.

"Well, it seems your evil plan is bearing fruit, my lady. I didn't expect it to work this well."

Kerrigan sighed. "This is going to turn into a 'humans are stupid' speech isn't it, Tiberias?"

"Please, my lady. Why bother stating the obvious?"

"Right. Izsha, scan Warfield's base."

"Yes, mistress. Scan complete. Warfield's base is guarded by infantry and light mechanized support. There are bunker positions around the tunnel entrances that lead to the underground hive complexes and the remnants of the nydus network. No nearby hives have been detected."

"Then we do this without reinforcements. There are plenty of Zerg in the holds. Judging by their defenses, I think we have enough. If we're fast and quiet, we can drop out of the sky, pick up the Raiders and leave before the rest of the Dominion even knows what happened. Izsha, jam their communication network. I want their army leaderless."

Izsha's eyes narrowed, as if she spotted a threat just beyond her field of vision. "Warning, multiple psionic signatures detected. Ranging from class 5 through class 10. Caution is advised."

Terran psionics could only mean one thing. "Great, ghosts. That's going to make things a bit more complicated."

"Not really, my lady." Cain said. "We Zerg are naturally sensitive to psychics, and a C-10 canister rifle doesn't hurt much more than a regular C-14. Besides, there're only a couple of them. We'll just swarm them like we usually do. I think this might actually help us in the long run. Ghosts are rare and hard to replace if killed, especially that class 10 specimen."

Kerrigan though long and hard as she tried to formulate a new strategy. The lab was a crucial target, at least as important as the prison itself. Any information on the artifact or the hybrids that spooked Cain so much would be instrumental in defeating Mengsk in the long run. She wanted to attack the prison herself and have someone else hit the lab next door, but with these ghosts around, things could get a little difficult.

"Alright, here's the plan. I'll lead an attack on the lab, recover as much data as possible, and draw away most of the guards. The ghosts are going to come after my psychic presence, so that will give you, Cain, the opportunity to take group of Zerg and hit the prison. Lead the Raiders to the Hyperion, UNHARMED, if you'd be so kind. Once they're on board get the Hyperion to fly to safety. With a bit of luck, we'll be able to bust the Raiders out with minimal losses and get some insight into Mengsk's plans."

Judging by his surprise, it was obvious that this wasn't the plan Tiberias had in mind. "My lady, I'm not exactly a people person. There is no way in hell the humans will trust me. For all they know, I could be leading them to a Zerg buffet. What's stopping them from shooting me when I turn my back to them?"

"I know it won't be easy, but find a way to convince them you mean no harm. I won't be able to hide myself from those ghosts when we are on the ground. If I go to the prison myself, I'll put the Raiders in even more danger then they already are. Unlike ours, the human body generally doesn't react well to bullets."

"That still won't prevent Raynor from legging it once we give him his ship. Or shooting me in the back."

"Then you'll get to take one for the team. We're going to have to trust him and his people, even if you don't think we can. The humans won't put their faith in us if we won't put our faith in them first.

Cain wasn't satisfied, but decided to obey anyway. "Alright, I'll do it. But if some trigger-happy human shoots my face off, I'm blaming you…my lady."

"Satisfied? Good. Anyone else have something to add?"

"I have, my Queen." Za'gara decided chime in, flexing her talons to show herself ready for battle. "Your role in this mission is most hazardous, and I would like to accompany you in the human laboratory to guarantee your safety." To the Queen's surprise, the broodmother had already recovered from her wounds.

"Za'gara, I didn't expect to see you up yet. You looked pretty banged up when I left you. Are you sure you want to come along? You're probably going to get shot again."

The broodmother sneered in disdain. "Let these humans bring their worst to bear! You created us to lead the Swarms on the fields of battle and beyond. It is my duty to stand by your side and I will not falter in the face of those pathetic creatures with their little guns. My wounds were grave, but we are quick healers. I am as strong as ever and these Terrans still owe me a chalice of their blood."

The queen smiled. "Well, at least you're motivated. Alright, you can come along. Let's get this over with."

A strange feeling of dread washed over Kerrigan as the leviathan landed on the surface of Char. Whatever was in that lab was still creeping her out, even from that distance. Nevertheless, she had to know what's inside, for her own sake and that of the Zerg. She just hoped she wasn't going to regret her curiosity.


	17. Chapter 17

**Outskirts of Warfield's Base, Char**

In the past few weeks, the Dominion marines had become used to guarding the tunnel entrances. A few well-placed Perdition Turrets to slow down the tide of Zerg, followed by heavy machine guns to mop up any stranglers. Clean, effective, and simple. If all else failed, they could detonate the charges placed in the cave walls to bring the whole structure down, buying them some time to move the bigger guns into position. Thus far, their tactics worked like a charm: not a single Zerg managed to get close enough to the base to do any real damage. However, the men were so focused on the threat from below that they were oblivious to the shadow descending upon them from the heavens.

Like a dragon of ancient myth, the leviathan plummeted from the sky, spewing death and destruction onto the hapless defenders. The few soldiers that did manage to get to their senses in time were cut down by the waves of Zerg the massive creature disgorged from its holds. When the leviathan finally landed on the surface, Kerrigan and her subordinates jumped out. With a wordless order, the former Queen of Blades ushered her troops towards the Dominion base.

"Do you feel save in there, Warfield?" She sneered, "It's nothing personal, but you are standing between me and Arcturus Mengsk. Right now, that's a very bad place to be."

With that, she moved towards her target. The Dominion base was well defended and their forces narrowly matched her own. No matter. The Swarm would last as it needed to. It would take at least several hours for enough reinforcements to arrive, so the Zerg had plenty of time to get in and free the Raiders. Or at least she hoped. The road to the lab was blocked by a dozen or so marines, desperately trying to hold back the near endless tide. A quick baneling toss ended their resistance, opening the way to the objective. Za'gara hurled herself forward, shooting down marines with her spines while ripping a firebat in half with her talons, driving their comrades back into their bunkers. Kerrigan was sure the broodmother would be able to hold the line against the Terrans for the time being and entered the lab. Za'gara, noticing her Queen's actions, moved her forces in a defensive perimeter around the building, determined not to let anyone pass. However, in the heat of battle, she failed to notice the shimmers of several cloaked figures sneaking past her forces…

Up to this point, Tai and Larry had kept themselves out of the battle, waiting for the opportunity to attack the prison. That opportunity presented itself shortly after their Queen fought her way into the laboratory building. Tiberias didn't like the idea of her using herself as bait, but he understood that it was the best choice, given their situation. While he'd rather be inside to protect her, he had another task to fulfill. Like a good Zerg, he obeyed, rushing forward and using the chaos of battle as his cover. The humans must still have seen him coming; they closed the prison facility's door before he could enter.

"Why, they locked the door. Whatever will we do? Larry, would you be so polite to knock for me?"

With child-like glee, the Hunter-Killer forced his scythes into the door and began ripping it to shreds. It took a few minutes, but it couldn't hold the massive elite Zerg back forever. As the pair broke through the door, Cain could see the guards dropping their weapons and fleeing in terror. He could hardly blame them. The infested Terran briefly considered gunning them down, but decided against it. The Queen had been quite adamant in insisting that civilians won't be harmed and these guys didn't look tough enough to be military. It would probably be best to avoid shooting anyone unless they had to. He could always kill them later.

Now came the question of where to go. Finding the rebel commander was his primary objective. The facility was rather big, however, and he didn't feel like blindly stumbling about until he found Raynor. Noticing a room marked with the word 'Warden's Office', he decided to ask someone for a change. The terrified shouting probably meant that there was at least one person there. Good. Perhaps he could help. Maybe if Tai was very polite, the man would feel like talking.

Tiberias kicked open the door. His eyes quickly glanced over the men in the office. Nothing bigger than a simple hand-gun. Cain assumed that the one with the fanciest hat would be the warden and proceeded to shove his gun into his face. "Where's Commander Raynor?!" He yelled in his face. The poor man just stood there with his mouth open and a dark, growing stain that was slowly moving down his pants. Apparently that wasn't polite enough. "Ahem, would you please tell me where Commander Raynor is? Nice hat, by the way."

"'A' block, t-t-third floor. Please, just go away!"

Well, that went better than expected. Amazing how a little politeness can loosen up a human's tongue! Perhaps this diplomacy thing wasn't such a terrible idea after all. As he took the elevator, Cain hoped it worked as well on Raynor as it did on the warden.

**Laboratory, Char**

With her gun raised, Kerrigan dashed through the building, looking for a suitable data port for her adjutant. The place was like a maze. Lab after lab, all of them the same, at least to the Queen. She wondered if she wasn't completely lost and covering the same ground. If that was the case, she'd have to take a look at Izsha, make sure she isn't bugged or something. Bugged in her programming, that is. At least the resistance was, thankfully, almost non-existent. Judging by the noise, anyone with a weapon big enough to hurt her was outside fighting with her Zerg. The only ones still here were terrified scientists who seemed more interested in saving their own skin than stopping her. Good for them. She really didn't want to have to kill unarmed people, or anyone for that matter. Not if she could avoid it.

That said, there was something out of place here. Psychic presences that shouldn't be there. Could it come from something in the labs? In the corner of her eye, she noticed the a shimmer that appeared to be moving. A cloaking device. Instinctively, she took aim and fired her weapon. The wearer ended up with three holes in his chest and died before he hit the ground. Kerrigan carefully inspected her most recent kill and realized what he was. Environment suit, chanister rifle, active camouflage: the man was a ghost. Kerrigan picked up the man's communicator. She'd be able to monitor their communications and figure out where they were. At the very least, it would force them into silence. A female voice spoke through the device. A voice so calm, it even managed to send chills down the Queen's spine:

"Begin your sweep. Find Kerrigan."

Not good. Not good at all. The ghosts must have slipped past Za'gara outside. At least they were upfront about their intentions. She considered calling her Zerg inside to defend her, but that would certainly result in the death of everyone inside. The ghosts would probably be able to sneak past them anyway. No, she felt she had to do this alone. Coming to think of it, why not? She was always top of her class and probably the strongest (mostly) human psychic alive. Let them come. She was ready for them.

"Mistress, there is a secure terminal to your left." Kerrigan darted to the computer Izsha mentioned and hacked into it. Funny how she hadn't lost her touch even after four years. Then again, hacking was always a laughably simple with these computers. "Connection established. Downloading."

"How long will this take?"

"Approximately seventeen minutes and forty-two seconds. I have reset all the passwords and reinitialized the firewalls. The Dominion will not be able to stop me or purge the data in time. There is no need to remain here. Recommend immediate extraction before more operatives arrive."

"Not yet. I want to know what's in the labs too."

"Do you require directions?"

"No. I'll find my way." How could she not? The psychic emanations from whatever the Dominion kept downstairs were impossible to miss. She'd just have to follow her third eye and look for the creepy Protoss smell.

Kerrigan sensed another trio of ghosts just around the corner and got ready to ambush them. As the operatives came around, she disarmed the first by ripping the pistol out of his hands and turning it onto the second. In an single movement, she snapped the first man's neck while pushing him towards the third, knocking the latter off-balance. Before he had time to react, he found his jaw shattered and his brain reduced to mush by a flurry of bullets. Yep, Kerrigan was still the best operative around. The little warm-up with these wannabes almost made her hunger for a real challenge. Almost. She was a professional after all, not a murderous psychopath.

As she ran and fought her way through the facility, the emanations that she'd been dreading became stronger. At least that meant that she was going in the right direction. On the way down, she encountered a curious, aging scientist talking down two ghosts.

"I don't care we have computer problems, all this data must…" His eyes widened when he noticed the Zerg queen in the hallway. "You…" He ran away, with a speed far greater than what one would expect a man his age to be capable off, and sealed the laboratory's blast door behind him. The ghosts tried to shoot her, but Kerrigan telekinetically slammed them into the wall before they could. The communicator spoke again, this time in the scientist's bizarre accent.

"Nova, this is Dr. Narud. The Queen of Blades is here and she is heading towards lab 2-13." Narud. Where had she heard that name before? The man was so strangely familiar. He must have known her; he knew who she was almost instantly. She'd have to ask Izsha about this later.

She turned on the communicator that she'd been carrying. Maybe this Narud could be talked into opening the door. Using the calmest, most diplomatic tone she could produce, Kerrigan asked: "Dr. Narud, I don't want to hurt you, I just want to get into that lab. Open the door, and I'll let you go."

"Well, 'you majesty', I'm afraid I can't let you do that. A lot of classified things here, and a lot of data, oh yes. We can't let you put your little claws on it, now can we?" The man could be admired for his guts. Unfortunately, she couldn't say the same about his intellect. Mocking and insulting the person who is more than capable of gutting you like a fish is not a very good plan.

"Narud, if the schematics of your base are correct, you're trapped. There is no way out of that lab except through this door. Since you apparently know who I am, tell me: how long do you think this door is going to protect you from me?"

"Oh, but you are wrong about that, my dear. I am quite safe here, at least long enough for my associate to come and kindly show you the door." Pheh, the hubris.

"And who might that me? More rookie ghosts like the ones I've been murdering all day? Tell me, 'dear doctor', who might your mysterious savior be?" As she finished her sentence, an invisible hand grabbed her from behind and knocked her on the floor. The shimmer of a cloaking device gave way to the image of a blond ghost with a gun pointed at her head and a smug, almost predatory smile on her face.

"Me."

**Prison Facility, Char**

Tiberias became more nervous as the elevator moved towards the third floor. Convincing a human to work with him was difficult enough by itself, but to convince _the_ James Raynor was another thing altogether. For all he knew, the rebel commander could walk on water and turn ultralisks to stone with nothing but a glance. Those weren't even the wildest stories he'd heard about Raynor. Cain quietly hoped that they were nothing but myths. If they weren't…well, good thing he wasn't an ultralisk.

Cell Blok 'A'. Well, here goes nothing. Tiberias opened the door and knocked the guard unconscious before he had a chance to get of his seat. The other two humans, the ones locked behind bars, jumped at Tai's rather dramatic entry. One of them was a military type man, at least by Terran standards. He stood just a little too upright, trying to hide his fear of the infested Terran behind a façade of military bravado. Or was it disgust? Cain wasn't that good at reading faces anymore. The man maintained an air of command about him, or at least tried too. The other, however, was different. This man looked weary, worn, and exhausted, like a man who had seen too much destruction in his life and should have died a long time ago. He looked far older than he should be. Not to mention that he was so small and fragile, at least compared to Tai's expectations. The man was at least a foot shorter than Cain was. While he was quite muscular by Terran standards, to Tiberias he still looked like a push-over, not what one would expect from the person who managed to invade Char and kill the Queen of Blades. Admittedly, part of him expected the rebel to be ten feet tall and covered in flames. The more rational portion of Cain's mind knew he'd never live up to that, but still. _This_ was James Raynor?!

_A/N I guess most of you are expecting the next chapter to involve an epic martial arts battle. However, I know nothing of hand-to-hand combat. Do any of you know any awesome movies that can give me a little inspiration? I really don't want it to turn out corny or ridiculous because of my ignorance of proper fighting. A link to a good Youtube video would also be appreciated._


	18. Chapter 18

**Prison Facility, Char**

Tiberias was at a loss for words. He was face to face with the rebel leader, but no idea what to do now. He probably had to be diplomatic, but he didn't know what to say first. Mostly, he just stood there with a blank expression on his face, trying to figure out a proper ice breaker. It ended up being Raynor who broke the silence first.

"You gonna shoot us or stare at me till I die of old age?"

Oh boy, now it was his turn to say something. Well, here goes nothing… "Commander Raynor, I have orders. The Swarm needs your help and we need to get you out of here." As a sign of good will, he opened the prison doors. Hopefully it was enough to persuade the commander of his good intentions. The two humans just looked at each other in confusion before Raynor retorted.

"You…a Zerg…need my help? _My_ help? No offence, but I'm having trouble believing that. You don't strike me as someone who cares all that much about my wellbeing."

And the good commander wasn't wrong. "You're right, I don't. You're nothing to me personally, but you matter to her majesty and she's ordered me to help you escape. She wants you out of here and it's not my place to question her commands."

"Her majesty? Kerrigan?"

"Who else?"

"Of course, who else." Raynor scratched his head. He seemed worried…maybe even confused…or both? "If she's thinks I'm so important, why didn't she come down here herself?"

"You know there are ghosts here, right?"

"Yes…"

"You know ghosts can sense other psychics, right?"

"Your point?"

"Her majesty is probably the most powerful psychic alive. What do you think will happen if she came here? The ghosts would be drawn to her like moths to a flame, and we'd all get caught in the crossfire. I don't think that would be conducive to your health and well-being.

Raynor glared at him. "You know, being a snarky bastard ain't exactly a good quality for a diplomat. Why would Kerrigan send you?"

"I've been asking myself that question all morning. Probably has something to do with us being a little shorthanded of late. I think it had something to do with a bunch of silly humans and a creepy alien artifact killing the Queen of Blades along with the entire Primary Hive. However, that was the past. I prefer thinking about the present. Presently, this base is caught in a crossfire between us and the Dominion. I know this sounds cliché, but if you want to live, come with me."

Raynor turned around, deep in thought. Cain wondered what there was to think about. If they didn't want to die, they'd have to follow him, right? The choice was clear to him. Matt Horner decided to vocalize his worries during Raynor's pondering.

"What's to keep you from killing us, or worse?"

"What could possibly be worse than death? Double death?" Tai got the feeling these two weren't exactly the brightest crayons in the box. They were in prison. They were probably going to die. He offered them a way out. The only sensible thing to do is to come along. The fact that they could stay out of Dominion hands for four years doesn't bode well for Cain's view of the human species.

"The way I see it, being infested would probably classify as that."

"I should probably be insulted, but since diplomacy is all about making nice with people you secretly despise, I'll forgive you for it. So, let me put it this way: If I wanted you dead, you would be on the ground, clutching the gaping hole where your head used to be. If I wanted to infest you, I would have shot you in the foot and be dragging you to the nearest hive. Either way, we wouldn't be standing here, talking about it, now would we?"

"Fair enough. What about the rest of our crew?"

"My orders are clear, I have to take each and every one of the Raiders to the Hyperion, alive, unharmed, uninfested. You are to take off, and then you and the Queen are going to talk."

"That's it? No insurance policy? Nothing to keep us from blasting away and leaving you to the Dominion?" The commander wasn't buying it.

"I don't like the plan either, but her majesty thinks you're not going to help us unless we show some faith in you. We're both trying to destroy the Dominion. Our goals are the same, so I think we can help each other. Even if you won't help us directly, your presence will hurt the Dominion no matter what you do."

Raynor chuckled at Cain's last statement. "So let me get this straight: you want our help destroying the Dominion after we helped the Dominion destroy you?"

"I'm fully aware of the irony, Commander."

"I think you might be a little insane."

Tiberias shrugged. "Sanity is relative."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing really, it just stops people from asking whether I'm insane or not."

"Probably because they realize you are…" Horner said with a degree of dry sadness in his voice.

"Anyway, it's been absolutely _wonderful_ talking to the both of you, but that's not important now. Like I mentioned, I prefer worrying about our current problems, such as the Dominion army that will inevitably show up in a few hours. Now, you can either come with me and escape, or stay here and rot away in a Dominion cell for the rest of your life. Your call."

Raynor, once again, lost himself in his thoughts. Horner didn't like that at all.

"Commander, tell me you're not seriously considering this! Helping the Dominion is one thing, but helping the Zerg…"

"I didn't say anything about helping Zerg yet, Matt. I want to talk to Sarah, see what her plan is. See what…what she is. In the mean time, we're gonna get our people of this graveyard. We're not helping them, their helping us. For the moment, at least."

"Commander, we trusted her during the Brood War…"

"We trusted the Queen of Blades during the Brood War. Way I see it, we're dealing with a completely different person now. You know what she did on Tyrador, Matt. I don't trust her, but I'm willing to give her another chance. Not like we got much of a choice."

"Sir, I don't think we can ever trust a Zerg. If word gets out, we lose all the goodwill we've built up with the people. We can't help them if they think we're working for monsters…no offence."

And they call Tiberias undiplomatic… "The name is Cain, by the way. But none taken, the feeling is mutual. Thankfully, I don't need your trust right now, just your cooperation. As for people knowing, I can have our adjutant destroy all the camera footage. As far as anyone knows, the Swarm struck and you escaped in the ensuing chaos." The two finally seemed to be coming around. "Your Raiders are held in cells throughout this building. I don't think they'll come with me, but they'll tag along if you're around to tell them what's going on."

"I don't think it's a good idea to have you around at all."

"Understood, but you're up against armored guards with guns. I think it's best if you let me do the shooting."

Captain Horner still didn't seem reassured. Cain picked up the guards side arm and tossed it into the captain's cell. Part of him knew he was probably going to regret this. "Look, have this gun if it makes you feel any better. Might give you some sense of safety if you are really convinced I'm going to try and murder you."

Horner inspected the gun. It was loaded. Although it was unlikely that a small handgun could kill this 'Cain' and his pet monstrosity, at least it showed that he was trying to seem sincere, or so Matthew hoped. The captain dropped his objections. He would keep an eye on his rescuer, but was willing to risk working with him for the moment.

With Matt's reluctant approval, Raynor finally gave the word, mentally praying he wasn't leading his men into another trap. "Alright then, lead on."

"About bloody time."

**Laboratory, Char**

Being blindsided by a ghost is usually a death sentence, especially if said ghost is armed and dangerous. Of course, this isn't the case if you remind the gunpowder in the bullets that now is not a very good time to explode. The look on the ghost's face when her trusty weapon doesn't fire was priceless. The look on her face when she was telekinetically slammed into a wall, even more so.

With her opponent temporarily stunned, Kerrigan pulled herself back on her feet and prepared to fight. Nova recovered much more quickly than she had hoped and went straight for the throat with a knife the ghost pulled out of her suit. Rash, the Queen thought. Skillfully, she redirected the jab downward with one hand while elbowing her opponent with the other. Before Nova could recuperate, the knife was pulled from her hand. Kerrigan briefly considered using the weapon against its owner, but decided she didn't want to. She didn't need it, and she had a better one even if she did.

Nova took a step back and held her arms in front of her face in a defensive posture. Kerrigan was intrigued. Unlike the ghosts she had already eliminated, this one actually had some skill. They were standing too close to each other to use guns or psionics effectively and her posture showed that she knew she was fighting someone who was, at the very least, her equal. The girl reminded Kerrigan of herself when she was younger. Heck, if she dyed her hair red, she'd practically be Kerrigan when she still serving the Confederacy. Killing her just didn't feel right. Maybe the girl would listen to reason.

"Look, girl, do you know who I am?"

"I know exactly who you are, 'your Highness'." Why was everyone in this facility trying to get on her nerves? No matter, Kerrigan wasn't going to let a little teasing get to her. Unbridled rage is bad, especially when you can make people's heads pop like goo filled balloons. She had learned that lesson the hard way.

"Good, then you'll believe me when I tell you that I can probably gut you in about two minutes. Give me a few more, and I can do something even worse. Now, I've got enough blood on my hands to last a dozen lifetimes; I'd hate to have to add yours as well."

"A few weeks ago, that might have scared me. Now, you don't look so tough without your fancy carapace."

"Hmph. You're confident. I suppose that's good. But ask yourself, do you really think I need that?"

"Let's find out." With that, the ghost flew into action. She opened up with a round-upwards kick. Her opponent easily dodged it and retaliated with a tackle, knocking them both on the ground. Kerrigan's attempt at pounding her foe's face in was interrupted by the ghost's knee jab into her thigh, separating the two and bringing the fight back to where it began. Nova followed with a series of punches, using her suit and psychic powers to speed them up to inhuman levels, but the former Queen of Blades was on to her, blocking and dodging most of them. With the last blow, the ex-ghost grabbed of Nova's body and threw her to the ground. A few of the blows did manage to get through, however, and the bruises were beginning to sting. Lacking extra armor, Kerrigan's suit did little to protect her. That said, she was surprised at her own resilience and stamina. Nova's movements seemed to slow from the pain of her wounds, but Kerrigan had no such issues. All the ghost seemed to be able to do was piss her opponent off.

Nova attacked once again, first with a lightning-fast kick to the face, followed by another in the chest. Kerrigan fell to her knees in pain, but it wasn't just her wounds that caused it. Her blood felt like it was boiling, her muscles screamed, and every cell in her body was begging her to rip this insolent little child apart limb from limb. She couldn't contain her anger any longer. Kerrigan sped forward, grabbing the ghost by her suit's collar with one hand and slamming her into the wall. In the blink of an eye, she channeled her rage and psychic might into her free arm and rammed it into her victim's shoulder, shattering the armor and crushing the bone underneath. With a simple gesture, she tossed the broken ghost into the hallway and moved in for the kill. The only thing on Kerrigan's mind right now was how badly she wanted to grind this girl into pulp, how badly she wanted to tear this little…

Her thoughts were shattered by a blinding flash and a deafening noise. Kerrigan scolded herself. How could she not notice her opponent throw a flash-bang grenade. The blast made her come to her senses. Focus…she had to focus, her opponent could still be there. If she used her psionics she might be able to see the ghost and stop her before the killing blow was delivered. It never came, though. When Kerrigan's could see with her eyes again, she noticed that her opponent had fled the scene. Only then did she realize what she nearly did.

If it wasn't for that grenade, she would have killed that girl. Not out of necessity, but in pure, blind rage. She lost control of herself. Her emotions didn't just get the better of her, they grabbed the reins and nearly made her…no, she couldn't think about it. In some twisted way, killing her felt like killing the last remnant of her old self. Was this the effect of the adrenal glands that Tiberias talked about? The fact that it came so suddenly and that she couldn't stop it wasn't what scared her the most, though. What worried her even more, however, was that deep down, some part of her liked it.

She picked up her weapons and took her frustrations out on the lab door, ripping it to pieces. If Narud's in there, he'd better have some answers. At least something to keep her mind occupied on things other than her emotions.


	19. Chapter 19

**Prison Facility, Char**

"I swear, if anyone utters the phrase 'He's a Zerg!' again, I'm going to…"

"Be a good boy and shut up. You got orders, remember?" Raynor was becoming a little worried about his new 'ally'. Sure, he hasn't hurt any of his men (yet) and did exactly as he said he would, but there was no telling how long that would last. The infested Terran became more and more cranky as they went deeper into the prison. The rebel commander could hardly blame him, though. Each and every single one of the crew members they freed yelled some variation of the phrase 'He's a Zerg!', except for Stetman, who just stared at him in terror and promptly soiled himself. The fact that most of them used the word 'Zerg' as an insult wasn't helpful either. Thankfully, they were almost done. The Hyperion had already been retaken by Matt and a small strike team, giving the Raiders a place to fall back to. Not that it was very difficult: most of the guards had abandoned the ship to go fight off the Zerg. It would take a little while before the Hyperion could take off, but the fact that it was theirs again made Raynor a bit happier. It was a lot more crowded than before, with the Dominion turncoats joining their ranks. He'd probably need to get an extra ship or two when this is over. If only they could liberate the last cell before Cain blew a gasket…

As he did with all the others, Cain broke down the door, grabbed the guard by the neck and slammed him into the wall in a single fluid motion, knocking the poor man unconscious and probably killing him as well. Raynor didn't know, but didn't really care that much either. He didn't exactly like the guards and he'd rather have the Zerg take his frustrations out on them than he would have on his own crewmembers. Matt would probably want to kill him if he heard Raynor thinking in double standards, but you can't have everything, now can you? The infested Terran threw him the guard's keys, allowing him to free the last of the Raiders still locked up: his chief engineer Swan. The stout man looked back and forth between his two rescuers. He wasn't going to say it, was he?

"Swan, before you say anything, he just busted all of us out. Try to play nice, I'll explain later."

"What's there to explain? He's a Zerg!" Oh dear.

Raynor swore he saw a twitch in Cain's eye. "Wait, I am? Really? Oh my god, I always thought I was an Ursadron! What a revelation! Surely you must be the biggest genius in the whole sand-cursed sector to finally see the truth!" He stormed out the room and started pounding a hole in a nearby wall. "Bloody humans!" That wasn't as bad as Raynor feared it would be. At least verbal abuse doesn't hurt as much as physical abuse, especially when an angry infested Terran is involved.

"Great, like being locked up in here wasn't bad enough. Where'd you dig up that crazy freak, cowboy?"

"I didn't dig him up, he dug us up. Now, try to play nice."

"You want me to kiss and make up? Be friends with the bug-eyed monsters? Are you insane!"

"Probably. Look, I just want you to follow us back to the ship. At least try to pretend you're grateful that he pulled all of us out of jail. Report to the Hyperion. Matt's gonna need your help getting her airborne again."

"I always knew you'd make me go crazy. Just didn't figure it'd be this soon…" Reluctantly, Swan obeyed and went on his way. Raynor sighed. He'd have a _lot_ of explaining to do when this was over.

"Matt, how long till we can get off this rock?"

"About an hour or two, commander." The captain replied. "If Swan was around, it'd go a lot faster."

"Rory's on his way, just hurry it up. Don't wanna be here when the Dominion rears its ugly head."

"Are there any more of your friends we need to pull out or are we done here?" Cain seemed to have cooled down a bit, at least for the time being.

"We still have to get Warfield, Cain."

"Don't worry about the Dominion commander. I'll bring you his head when we meet again."

"What? No, I don't want you to kill him. He's a Raider too."

The infested Terran seemed really confused. "Didn't he lock you and your friends up? Isn't he supposed to be in charge, guarding you lot?"

"No he isn't. Long story, but all you need to know is that he's on our side and that your 'queen' will not be very happy with you if you kill him."

"He's not going to come willingly."

"No he won't, so you're going to call of your pets and escort me to him. Warfield's a good guy. He'll understand and he won't shoot you if I'm around. Lemme get my suit and we'll be on our way." The infested Terran grumbled something about 'bloody humans' before signaling him to come. Raynor wasn't sure if the creature was annoyed at the fact he had to rescue a Dominion general or that Raynor was essentially blackmailing him into doing it. Hopefully the good general wasn't armed. If he was, things could get messy.

**Laboratory, Char**

Disgust. Of all the thoughts and feelings that were floating around inside the head of the former Queen of Blades as she passed through the labs, disgust was the strongest. She couldn't stop wondering what kind of sick bastard would willingly work here. Then, she realized thinking that felt like hypocrisy. While she couldn't remember the details, the infested Terran project she started was probably at least as bad. The realization that someone else in the universe is as much a monster as you are didn't really make her feel better.

The rooms she went through were stuffed with equipment of all shapes and sizes and terminals that Izsha could work her magic. Most of them were of Terran design: tables, lab equipment, and a few analyzers here and there. The stasis fields holding the live tissue samples were still intact. Some of them even contained Zerg samples, but they didn't 'feel' right for some reason. She'd have to send some drones here to collect them afterwards. Maybe Abathur could make something useful out of them. At the very least, he could tell her what was going on.

Another room, this time with a large Protoss device of some sorts. The structure consisted of two smooth archers with strange crystals embedded into it. A series of tubes and wires were plugged into the machine and led to a terminal on the far side of the room. Maybe that could shed some light as to what the machine was, assuming that it was still working. The underlying circuitry looked burned and the structure cackled with electricity.

"Izsha, I'm connecting you to a computer attached to some Protoss tech. Can you tell me what it does and if it's still functional?"

"Connection complete. Analyzing. Mistress, this structure appears to be a Protoss teleportation gate of sorts. It has been used very recently, and its user must have initiated a self-destruct protocol when he left. The device is damaged beyond repair." Narud. Narud must have used it. This thing was probably put here as an escape route in case something went wrong. At least she didn't have to look for him now.

"Can you tell me the destination? Where the user went?"

"Negative, Mistress. The device is too damaged."

"How did they manage to get it to work in the first place? Did they finally figure out how…" Her conversation was interrupted by the lights suddenly failing. After a few seconds of darkness, the tell-tale red emergency lighting ignited, followed by the regular lights a while later.

"My apologies, Mistress. I took the liberty of powering down the fusion core. Someone set it into meltdown, presumably to destroy the lab and anyone left within. As for your questions, I am downloading information from eleven different platforms and combating several hundred firewalls simultaneously. I lack the capacity to analyze the data at this time."

"And here I thought you could do anything."

"If you find my performance unsatisfactory, perhaps you should consider upgrading my hardware." Izsha's snarking did not go unnoticed.

Kerrigan left the wrecked gate behind and continued on to the rest of the lab. Finally, she reached the room where the bulk of the psychic emanations were coming from. Her target was sealed off by a massive blast door, but one that could easily be opened by her adjutant. What lay within was more shocking to her than she could ever have imagined. Massive specimen tubes, at least a dozen of them. Within them, strange dormant creatures that looked like tadpoles the size of a Zerg larva. Protoss-Zerg hybrids. They had to be. The Zerg Queen peered inside their minds, only to be met with malice and bestial hatred. If those things would grow large enough to require such a massive tank…if they were ever let out… Who would create something like this? Why? So many questions, so little time. As she mentally began ordering her Zerg to secure the building, she noticed footsteps. Dammit! The Dominion was onto her.

**Warfield's Command Center, Char**

Somehow, general Warfield always knew his life would probably end something like this. Backed in a corner, surrounded by hungry Zerg and armed with an empty rifle, taking down as many of the monsters with his bare hands as he could before he was overcome. Well, bare hands… He wished the medics were here, especially the one that said he was crazy for demanding an arm cannon for his prosthetic limb. Damn thing saved his life a dozen times already. Guess who'd get the last laugh, eh? Well, the medic would, when the general thought about it. The bastard got reassigned to Valerian's purification fleet. Bah, if it was going to end, it might as well be now. Why haven't the Zerg finished him off yet? Were they toying with his mind?

"WARFIELD!" Was that…Raynor?!

A man in black CMC armor rammed his way through the barricaded door. Yep, it was definitely Raynor. "Well, didn't realize that digging you out of hellholes is part of my job description nowadays. The Hyperion is nearby. We're getting out of here."

"Crazy fool! You sure are a sight for…Zerg, behind you!" The general pushed Raynor aside and fired another shell from his arm cannon into the infested Terran's face, knocking him on the floor. "Anyway, how did you get out? I thought they still kept you in lock-up?"

"We were rescued…by the critter you just shot."

The general was puzzled for a while before answering "The _Zerg_ sprung you?"

"How do you think I got past all them creeps outside? The whole base is crawling with them and you just shot the one reason we haven't been eaten yet!" Cain pulled himself up against a nearby console, slightly dazed and groaning in pain. Raynor couldn't hide his surprise. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Tough sonovabitch." The general muttered as he readied another shot.

"Good guy, he says. He'll understand, he says. Won't shoot me, he says." Tai muttered, mostly to himself. "Why's my right mandible doing over there?" He touched his face and realized about half the carapace was missing. "Bloody humans."

"Are you alright?"

"Why Raynor, I've never been better. I only got half my head blown off by General Itchy-Fingers, but who needs a face anyway!" There was murder in the Zerg's eyes. Thankfully, he only lashed out verbally with his sarcasm. Raynor figured that if it weren't for Kerrigan's direct orders, he would have ripped Warfield's arm cannon off and beaten both of them to death with it. How the infested Terran managed to exert enough self-control to remember his orders was anyone's guess.

"Well, let's get to the introductions then. General, this is Cain. Cain, this is General Warfield. He's part of the Raiders…"

"I am?" Warfield said, surprised.

"You are…and you're going to take him back to the Hyperion. Will you do that for me?"

Not surprisingly, Tiberias wasn't particularly happy with this, but his hands were tied. "Do I have a choice?"

"Not really." Raynor muttered. "Matt, how long till you can take off? Good, plenty of time."

"You're not going to do what I think you're going to do, are you?" Cain asked, dreading the answer.

"Where did Sarah go?" The commander demanded.

"Her majesty went to the labs, but that building hasn't been secured yet. It's too dangerous!"

"I got my suit and my gun. Come along if you're afraid I'll get shot."

Without another word, the rebel leader moved on. Tai turned to the general and asked "Is this what you humans call 'true love'? From where I stand it looks a lot more like brain damage! Oh dammit, Larry, get the general to the ship, then go to the leviathan." With that, he ran after Raynor, constantly asking himself why the Queen would possibly want to have anything to do with this suicidal idiot.

**Laboratory Facility, Char**

Raynor quickly loaded another clip into his rifle. The Zerg was right, this building wasn't secure yet. He was probably also right about this being crazy, something he had reminded the rebel of about a dozen times by now. Not that it mattered. Jim needed to find Sarah. He couldn't wait any longer. He needed to know if there was anything left of the woman he fell in love with four years ago. No one was going to bar his way.

The rebel commander threw himself out of cover and fired onto the soldiers in his way. Tiberias unwillingly remained behind, pinned by the reinforcements slipping in from the outside. At least that would keep them of him, Raynor thought. The marines seemed more interested in pushing forward, deeper into the labs, then in turning around and stopping him. Dammit, they must already be closing in on her! Raynor followed them until the bastards sealed a blast door behind them as they disappeared into one of the labs. He pounded his fist on the door, desperately trying to find a way in. Suddenly, the door began to buckle under the amber colored lighting coursing through it.

"SARAH!"

Eventually, the door ruptured, ripping itself apart and knocking the rebel leader off his feet. He pulled himself up and approached the twisted metal husk that was barring his way mere seconds ago. The room was empty, save for a single female ghost. A ghost whose suit circuitry glowed a strange shade of yellow…

"Sarah?"

_A/N Oh boy that's three cliffhangers in a row! I'm really awful, aren't I?_


	20. Chapter 20

**Laboratory, Char**

"Sarah?" The ghost looked up and slowly turned around. Her suit circuitry returned to its normal blue hue again.

"Jim? Is there anyone else out there?"

"No. I lost your freaky friend a little while ago. Judging by the shooting, he's still busy. Guess the Dominion…" Before he could finish his sentence, Kerrigan grabbed hold of him and began to weep. She couldn't keep a lid on her emotions any more, not in front of him. The four year long nightmare, combined with the strain of the past few weeks, were too much, even for her. The idea that it might all be over, at long last…

Raynor, however, didn't know what to think. Admittedly, her reaction was very human. Sarah had always been good at pretending she didn't feel emotions, but pretending that she did was another thing altogether. Dammit, he wanted to believe that the woman he was holding in his arms was the same Kerrigan he fell in love with four years ago, but he couldn't be sure. He wanted to believe, the memories from the Brood War haunted him still.

Hell, what does it matter now? If there is one thing you should remember when flying around the galaxy fighting aliens, monsters, and evil emperors, it's that you should always savor the few happy moments you can. As cliché as it sounds, they may well be your last. What could be a happier moment than this?

"It's alright, darlin'. It'll all be alright."

Sarah muttered something unintelligible between her sobs, but Raynor didn't care that he couldn't understand it. Whatever she said, it wasn't important right now. They were together again, and to Jim, that was the only thing that mattered.

"It's okay, honey. We should probably leave. Dominion's gonna get here soon. I want you to come with me to the ship. There are some things we need to talk about. Important things, bigger than you and me." That, and he wanted to be sure that she was the person he thought she was.

Kerrigan managed to pull herself together again, trying to calm herself. It wasn't really working. "Yeah, you're…you're right, we should leave. Finish this somewhere else. Let me fetch some drones to carry the creeps from the lab. We might need them later."

Raynor recognized the creatures he saw in the tanks. "Creeps…are those…"

"Protoss-Zerg hybrids. Don't know how the Dominion was making them. We got some data that might explain it."

"Can you send some of them to the Hyperion? My crew should probably have a look at this."

"You have the resources to handle something like that?"

"Well, we've got a guy in a lab coat. I guess he'll have to do."

"Not like we'd know any better, right?"

Raynor chuckled. "Look at us. Even now, after everything we've been through, we're still talking about work all the time."

"Seems like old times already." If only it was.

A group of drones scurried past their feet, followed by some Zerglings and a rather annoyed infested Terran. He shot a murderous glance at the commander before reporting. "The building has been secured, my lady. Dominion forces are on the run and it'll be a while before the reinforcements show up. Now, do I have permission to beat this bastard to death with his own skull?"

"Good god, your face! Are you alright?" Tai's injuries looked bad, but he just smiled through his agony. Poor bastard was just trying to appear tough, Kerrigan realized.

"I'll live. I was going to say something along the lines of 'I told you so' but I can't think of any pleasant way to say it. Anyway, I'm still ready for duty. You don't have to coddle me." He'd never admit that he was in pain, at least not when humans were around.

"If you say so. Get back to the leviathan and tell it to follow the Hyperion. Raynor and I have some 'things' to discuss."

"You're expecting me to just let you run off with him? No offence, but the last time the Raiders took you anywhere, I had to break you out of Elysium. We can't take that risk, you're too important." Cain was practically begging her not to go, but Kerrigan wouldn't budge. "Look, I can't stop you from going, but there's no way in hell I'm going to trust the life of our queen to _him_. I'm sure the Hyperion is big enough for a second Zerg on board."

Raynor did not like that idea. His crew might understand it if he brought Kerrigan, but this bodyguard of hers would be pushing it. Still, he was in his right to be concerned. Matt would never let Jim aboard an alien vessel without a marine detail to protect him. He decided to give the creature what he wanted. Now was not the time for arguing.

"Fine, you can come along. Just don't break anything, will ya? Matt, how's the Hyperion holding up?"

"The ship's fine. They stripped down the lab and much of the armory, but the main drives and warp engines are still online and the crew made it back in one piece. They are fixing the rest of the ship and sweeping for bugs as we speak. We can take off when you're ready."

"Good. Matt, I'm bringing along some guests. Try to keep the crew a bit distracted; I don't think they'll be very popular."

**Access hall, Hyperion**

Kerrigan remembered this ship fondly. It was a bit older and more worn than it was the last time she was here, but that did not tarnish the memories one bit. Her time with Jim aboard this ship was probably the only time in her adult life when she was truly, genuinely happy. Admittedly, things had changed. She had changed, along with Raynor and damn near everyone on the crew. She picked up the thoughts of the crewmembers that passed by, and regretted it almost immediately. In the old days, she was usually greeted with a combination of fear and respect. Not surprising, since Kerrigan was probably the deadliest ghost alive at the time. Now, however, she was met with misunderstanding and cold hatred, even from the few men that knew her from four years ago. They could hardly be blamed for it, given all that has happened.

After what seemed like an eternity, Raynor, Kerrigan, and Cain entered the Hyperion's bridge. Horner, Warfield, and Stetmann stood around the holographic table which was being used as an make-shift laboratory until the techs got the regular lab up and running again. On it was a representation of the mountains of data Izsha had extracted and sent to the Raiders at her Queen's request. It would probably take days to sift through it all. Matt, however, was worried about something else.

"Sir, before we took off, I took the liberty of scanning the facility. We found…"

"Protoss-Zerg Hybrids." Raynor interrupted. "The same critters we found on Castanar. I know, we just picked up a couple of them for Stetmann to have a look at, once we get our lab back working again."

"You brought Protoss-Zerg hybrids…onto _our_ ship…"

"They're only the size of dogs and completely inert. The Castanar monster didn't come after us until we cut the power and set it free. Given what we're up against, I think it's worth the risk. Now if you'll excuse us, me and Sarah have some talking to do. In private."

Tiberias flinched, but Kerrigan interjected. "Cain, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Help the others, play nice and give me a report once I'm back." Reluctantly, the infested Terran obeyed and turned his attention to the holographic image of the artifact and the bridge officers discussing it. He knew that she was just keeping him busy so she could focus on personal matters with the commander. Still, it would be worth the effort in his mind if this would help the queen getting over her emotional problems. The humans would probably need his assistance anyway, and if there were more of those hybrids about…well, knowledge is power and the Swarm needed all the power it could get.

**Captain's Quarters, Hyperion**

Raynor's quarters was a relatively sober room, at least compared to Kerrigan's expectations. It was quite small, containing little more than a bed and a few pieces of furniture. On most ships, this room would look like a luxury apartment, but not this one. Then again, Jim Raynor wasn't the type of man that would demand lavish sleeping arrangements and a wall covered in priceless paintings. In a way, this room's modesty reflected his character.

Kerrigan sat down on the sofa. Raynor went down to the armory to get rid of his suit, so she had a few moments to collect her thoughts. Probably ought to use them to freshen up a bit, she thought to herself. While she usually wore an environment suit, even when she didn't have to, this suit hadn't been taken off in weeks. She realized she'd probably stank like a bog by now. Not to mention that there was something wrong with those damn gloves. The burning in her forearms had only gotten worse of late.

When she took them off, however, she realized that there was nothing wrong with the suit. Her knuckles and parts her upper forearm turned a sickly shade of brownish-green, the color her skin underneath the carapace had when she was still the Queen of Blades. On the bottom of her forearms a tumor-like organ was forming. Just looking at it made her sick. Seems like Abathur was right; if her body was exposed to stress, it would compensate. She had used her forearms to block blows and her knuckles to deliver them; it was inevitable that that would be the place her carapace would begin to re-grow. The purpose of that tumor thing wasn't so obvious, however. Whatever it did, Kerrigan didn't really want to know. A voice in her head told her to grab the closest thing resembling a knife and cut it out. Not that it would help, though. Zerg regeneration being what it is, the damn thing would grow back within a day. She should put the glove back on. Hiding it wouldn't solve anything, but it might make her feel better.

"How long has your arm been like that, Sarah?" Raynor was back already. She had hoped that she could hide her predicament from him for a while longer. Perhaps she could have avoided the inevitably painful conversation that would follow. Oh, what was she thinking? She couldn't hid this. Hell, she shouldn't hide this. Not from him. Might as well bring it all out in the open.

"This is the first time I've taken off my gloves in…well, couple of weeks now, since they got me out of jail. I don't know." Not good enough for Jim, she could tell. He approached the sofa and sat down beside her. In spite of the commander's best attempts to remain calm, Sarah could read his thoughts like an open book. He had hoped the artifact had worked, that it would have burned all the Zerg out of her. To see that this wasn't the case nearly broke his heart, and by extension, hers. "I'm sorry, Jim. I never asked for any of this."

"You're infested again, aren't you?" Raynor asked, coldly. "Did the Zerg do this to you?"

"What gave me away: my hair-do or the fact I broke you out with an army of Zerg at my back?" She said morosely. "They didn't have to. The way I understand it, the artifact only treated the symptoms, not the cause. It was going to happen sooner or later. I just didn't think it'd be so soon."

"Who told you that, hmm? The Zerg?"

Kerrigan could understand that he held them responsible. It was better than assuming the artifact wasn't going to work at all. "Jim, they couldn't lie to me even if they wanted to. I'm a telepath, remember? I know they're telling the truth. Don't blame them. Blame me for not shooting myself at New Gettysburg."

The silence in the room quickly became deafening. Thoughts floated through Raynor's head. Horner's and Warfield's warnings that she could still be the Queen of Blades were among the most prominent. Kerrigan couldn't blame him for it. Was she still the Queen of Blades? Even Sarah wasn't sure anymore. Should she try and comfort him? Tell her she was at least partially human, that she still had feelings for him, that her humanity hadn't disappeared completely?

Would he believe her?

Would she believe herself?

"Well then, what'll happen now? You've spent an awful lot of resources getting me out, I guess it's for a reason. So how do me and my crew fit into your plans?" The coldness of his voice did little to hid his fear.

"I told the other Zerg I'd need you to deal with the artifact. As long as that thing is still around, Arcturus is still a threat to us. They bought it, at least for now."

"_Other_ Zerg?" Sarah's choice of words wasn't very reassuring.

"I can't hide it, can I? I tried to, but this…" She held up her twisted and mutating arm, barely managing to fight back the tears. She knew she'd never be herself again, but telling it to someone else, someone she loved, tore her up much more than she thought it would. "There's no point in lying about it, especially not to you. I'd only be fooling myself. Truth is, I'm scared. Scared of the world, what everyone will do to me now that I'm an easy target. Scared what I'll be forced to do just to stay alive."

"You think you need me."

"I suppose you could say I do." Sarah was one of the most self-sufficient and independent women Jim had ever known. Just suggesting that she'd need him would have earned the man a kick in the groin four years ago. The girl never needed help and would never ask for it even if she did. She must truly be scared out her wits for her to admit it.

"Now what? What's your endgame, Sarah? Mengsk?"

Just the thought of that man made her want to tear the room apart. Her sorrow was almost instantly replaced with rage. "Yes, Mengsk. I want him to die, and I want him to suffer while doing it." The harsh, direct tone of her answer frightened Raynor. Sarah was a killer, not a murderer. This was probably the first time he had heard her talk about ending a life as anything other than pure business. He thought her far too professional to let anything become personal, especially when it came to killing. Jim realized that she truly had changed. Not necessarily for the better. He shouldn't have been this surprised. No one could go through what she had and come out the same. It still begged the question of what would happen now. Would she remember her past life as the Queen of Blades? How far would she go in her quest for revenge? How many good men would die along the way? Worst of all, if she did turn to evil, would he be able to stop her from destroying everything he fought so hard to save?

Kerrigan picked up his train of thought and calmed herself in response. He was right, this wasn't like her. She would probably be right to fear for her sanity. "We should go back. The men probably have figured out what that lab was for by now, and I don't want to dwell on this any longer. Jim, make me a promise. If I…if I turn into…her…again, find me and kill me. I'd rather die than be trapped in the head of a monster again."

"Sarah, I…"

"PROMISE ME!"

"Alright, but you gotta promise me something in return. You're gonna work on those anger issues of yours. When Mengsk finally gets what's coming to him, I'd really hate it if there's no one left for the victory celebration. Deal?"

"Deal." Kerrigan said, weakly. "Come on, maybe we can get back to the bridge before the boys murder each other."

"Oh, if there's gonna be a fight, my money's on the guy with the bionic arm cannon!"


	21. Chapter 21

_A/N When I get reviews, most of the points and ideas people bring up go on the 'Good Ideas for Later' pile. Most of the time I already thought of putting the idea in question into the story but felt like it would be more fitting in another chapter. However, the feedback for this chapter bothered me to no end. When I reread this chapter and the reviews I've been getting, I realized that there were a few things missing. Things that I should have put in and won't really fit anywhere else. Therefore, I decided to re-upload this chapter. I apologize to all of you who came here expecting a new chapter. It's just an update. Please don't hate me. I'll release another chapter soon! Well, Blizzard Soon(tm) anyway._

**Bridge, Hyperion**

"Just because that artifact seems to do what you want, doesn't make going after it any less crazy. Who knows what tricks Mengsk, or whoever else is involved in this mess, have up their sleeves? These coded messages to the Umoja, the knowledge the Dominion has when they shouldn't; something doesn't add up."

"You have a better idea? Time isn't exactly on our side. If these reports are anything to go by there are dozens of hybrids in stasis throughout the sector. I'd say we hit them sooner rather than later."

"But we don't know if…My lady." Tiberias bowed politely before Kerrigan as she and Raynor walked onto the bridge. The Queen was actually quite relieved to see her underling argue with the good general. As long as they were talking, they at least wouldn't be killing each other. Raynor sat down on his favorite chair and looked at the hologram.

"So, the artifact. How does it work?"

Stetmann stepped forward and nervously presented his preliminary findings. "Well, sir, it's a device best described as an electrical transformer connected to a series of psi-emitters. It turns electrical energy into psionic waveforms that destabilize stress response complexes in…"

"English, Stetmann. It's been a long day." Raynor grunted.

"Right. Well, it allows nerve tissue to form properly in a Protoss-Zerg hybrid without triggering an apoptotic response due to…"

"Stetmann…"

"What the good scientist is trying to say" Tiberias interrupted "is that the artifact gives hybrids enough mental complexity to be of any actual use. Without it, any hybrid you create will either end up brain dead or insane, like that thing you found at the Castanar facility."

Finally, a straight answer. "And how does the artifact do that?"

The scientist and the infested Terran simply looked at each other and shrugged. As much as either of them hated to admit it, they truly had no idea.

"Ever heard of Clarke's Third Law?" Cain asked "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Well, I've seen quite a lot of weird things over the past few years, but this artifact of yours takes the cake. It's not like Protoss tech where you can still see the circuitry and mechanisms if you look hard enough. As far as I can tell, the damn thing might as well run on fairy dust."

"But we mined a library's worth of data out of the Moebius computers. Surely there was at least something that could tell us how it works?" Kerrigan asked.

"Moebius doesn't seem to know why or how it works either. They know how to use it, or at least they think they do, but it doesn't look like they ever bothered to figure out what makes it work." Matt Horner stood upright as he spoke, even more than usual. He was one of the few among the Raiders who still remembered Kerrigan from the Sons of Korhal. Even for him, it was difficult to see her as anything other than the Queen of Blades.

Kerrigan ignored the questions and fears floating through the captain's mind and went on with more pressing concerns. "So who _did_ make the artifact? It's too old to be human, but I doubt it's Protoss either. If it was, we would have known more about it by now."

"Yes, well, we can only speculate as to who created this thing," said the jittery scientist "but since the artifact is needed to create useable hybrids, I think it is acceptable to assume that it was created by the same people who gave the Dominion the technology to splice Zerg and Protoss DNA. As for who they are, I have only theories. Interesting puzzle, though. There's a lot of data we haven't read through yet, as well as plenty of leads to follow, so I'm sure we'll figure it out sooner or later."

Raynor slowly took a sip from his flask before closing the bottle and putting it back. "It's the Xel'Naga. They, or one of them for that matter, created the hybrids and probably this artifact as well."

Kerrigan knew that name. Xel'Naga…creators…Gods the Overmind usurped in eons past… Another bloody chapter in the Zerg Swarm's genetic memory. But this didn't make any sense. "Jim, the Xel'naga are dead. Have been for ages."

"Her majesty is correct, Commander." Cain elaborated. "The Xel'Naga were destroyed by the Overmind and the oldest of the Zerg Swarm soon after they created us. Every last worldship was hunted down and obliterated. Common knowledge to us Zerg. The possibility of them being back… It's as good an explanation as any, I suppose, but I hope you have some pretty good evidence to back it up."

"Sarah, do you remember Zeratul? Big, high ranking Protoss that can turn himself invisible?"

The mere mention of his name sent shivers up her spine. "I know there is a long list of people that deserve to kill me, and his name is right at the top." She said, dryly. If you make someone kill their own matriarch, not even death would be justice.

"Well, he stopped by the other day to give me a warning and a memory crystal. Apparently he uncovered a prophecy about the end of the world as we know it. He showed me a…vision, I suppose, of the final battle between the last of the Protoss and a seemingly endless army of Zerg and hybrids. It didn't end well for the Protoss, and after the battle, the hybrids destroyed the Zerg as well, along with the rest of the universe. He also thinks you're able to stop it somehow."

Kerrigan wondered if Jim had gone insane. A prophecy about an army of hybrids leading Zerg, _her_ Zerg, into battle against the Protoss, only for the Swarm to be killed off in the end? And _she_ was supposed to stop this…_somehow_?! She probed his mind, looking for signs of treachery, or insanity, only to find that he was completely honest about this. It wasn't a trick, it wasn't a trap, and it certainly wasn't the delusions of a broken mind. Still, this was too insane for words. She looked at her underling. He probably was two seconds short of saying something snarky or questioning whether Raynor was crazy or not.

"I…suppose that explains a lot…" Tai believed the commander? She sensed a great deal of doubt, but still. Sarah's mind was officially spinning inside her skull. "Zerg instinctively follow the strongest. The Queen of Blades made us like that. If you got yourself killed, there'll be no one left to control the entirety of the Swarm. If an outsider with enough psychic power comes along, he could take control of the solitary broods and eventually put the Swarm back together."

He couldn't be serious. Alien prophecies? Armageddon? Tai always seemed to be a rationalist, if a bit pessimistic at times. It felt almost out of character that he would believe something like this, at least not without a mountain of evidence confirming something like this. Unless…

"We knew this was going to happen, didn't we?" The humans looked at her, confused. They probably didn't know about her partial amnesia yet.

"The Queen of Blades was convinced that there was something out there trying to kill us. Not just the Zerg, but everything else too. I don't know what made her think that, but she was adamant about it and it wasn't my place to question her, at least not on something this big."

"Iszha never said anything about this…"

"Because the late Queen never told her, or anyone else for that matter, exactly what she was afraid of, though I believe they must have been suspicious. I figured out something was wrong when she ordered us to find a way to get into human research and intelligence organizations, even those that wouldn't yield anything useful. Whatever she thought was coming, she genuinely feared it."

"She…I told you all this but no one else?"

Tai lowered his head apologetically. "Well, she didn't exactly _tell_ me. When I asked about it, the Queen slammed me into the closest thing resembling a wall and told me that if I ever brought it up again she'd toss me into a lava pit. I took that as a 'yes' and decided not to press the issue any further. That was generally the healthiest thing to do when the late Queen was feeling upset." Of course, she thought. Fear was a weakness and he was essentially calling her weak. Still, it is rather strange that he would admit that the Queen of Blades possessed any weaknesses at all, especially in front of humans. Then again, these same humans managed to beat her. By Tiberias' twisted Zerg logic, that would probably make them superior to the Queen of Blades.

His train of thought about the prophecy did make some sense though. A hybrid invasion wasn't out of the question any more, judging by the contents of the Dominion lab, and if there was anything that could create a successful Protoss-Zerg hybrid, it would certainly be a Xel'Naga.

Captain Horner finally interrupted the conversation. "Okay, the human is a little confused here. You _forgot_ an end-of-the-world prophecy?"

Kerrigan did not like that tone, but the captain was in his right to ask. "I remember very little from the past four years. The Zerg have helped me catch up to the major events, but other than that, everything just seems like a dream." Truth, clean and simple. She didn't think the captain would buy it, though.

"I don't buy it." Nope. "For all I know you're walking us right into another trap. Just because your friend keep talking about you in third person…"

"Captain Horner," said Tiberias, seemingly annoyed that the captain implied he was a liar, "when we freed her from Elysium, there were three things on her mind: weapons, clothing, and an escape route. Do you really think the Queen of Blades would need any of those?"

"Matt," Raynor interrupted. "let it go. We'll talk about this later." Horner finally backed down after a few seconds. Kerrigan briefly scanned the thoughts of the crewmembers to get a sense of whose side they were on in this argument. Few believed her, of course, but Raynor stood out from all the others. Not just because he was probably the only one who seemed to want to believed her, but mainly because he seemed to be…relieved to hear about her amnesia. He was afraid that knowing the full truth would cost her her mind, or worse, the last shred of her humanity. To be perfectly honest, it nearly did. But why would he care so much about her mental state?

Kerrigan decided to dig a little deeper into the commander's mind. If Izsha was right about what happened during the Brood War, Raynor shouldn't be this caring or forgiving. Unless he…blamed himself?! The Queen cleared her mind and had another go at Jim's memories. She had to be wrong, there was no way… Another mind probe confirmed what she saw the first time. The poor bastard held himself responsible for everything that happened to her. Dammit, why did he do that to himself? He couldn't have saved her at New Gettysburg, no one could. He couldn't have stopped the Queen of Blades from committing atrocity after atrocity. Why, he did more than anyone could have ever asked of him. He stood against the Swarm whenever he could and successfully launched an invasion to stop her. And _still_, he thought he owed her! Sarah wanted to hug him, tell him to stop beating himself up over things he could not have prevented, but she couldn't do it. Not here. Not in front of everyone. Still, she had to find a way to help him. Jim needed her as much as she needed him. If there was a list of all the stories in the sector that deserved a happy ending, his would be at the top.

"I would like to see that memory crystal, if you'd allow it. Something like this needs to be verified." Tiberias went back to business. Figures. He probably didn't care about human emotional dramas unless it affected him or the Zerg directly. Hopefully, he didn't pick up her previous train of thought. If he did, the commander's emotional issues would probably feature prominently in his next 'Reasons Humans are Idiots' lecture.

"Sorry, pal, crystal is gone, along with most of our other laboratory samples and gadgets we've picked up. Dominion must have stolen them." Stetmann answered. "But I'm certain miss. Kerrigan can use some mindreading trick to replay the vision from the Commander's memories…"

"Psychic powers don't work like that. If I'd try that, your commander's brain will probably resemble a targeting dummy at a marine shooting range when I'm done." The Zerg Queen explained.

"Really? Oh, well, that's bad I guess. Still, am I the only one that thinks that the Dominion could have figured out how to do this on their own? Not the artifact, I mean, that's way beyond any of us, but the hybrids. We still don't know anything about the artifact other than what the Dominion guys have written down. It could have been the alien equivalent of a Christmas Tree for all we know, and splicing DNA is something we have been able to do for five hundred years. I used to work for the Dominion, they're smarter than you think."

Tiberias quickly pressed a few buttons and brought up the schematics of the device and the containment field the Dominion engineers build around it. "Look at the position of the modulators, the shape of the conductors, or heck, the output of the transformer. There's no way they could have figured all this out in a few weeks. Someone is helping them. Someone who somehow knows a great deal about a device that up until last month existed in five different pieces scattered across the stars."

"They could have guessed? Much of the structure could have been inferred from the artifact's circuitry and functioning. Maybe they got lucky with the parameters?"

"It takes weeks for one of these hybrids to grow large enough to see the effect of the artifact. You mean to tell me that they guessed the necessary output of a transformer down to the nano-Volt and got it right on their first try? That would be like me firing my gun in a random direction and somehow hitting Emperor Mengsk in the head. I'm telling you, there's an outsider involved. Which is why, Captain Horner and General Warfield, I think it's a really bad idea to attack Mengsk now. Sure, you've got the advantage against him, but he's just a minor issue compared to the real enemy. Whoever or whatever is behind all this will not be pleased to find out that their baby doomsday devices have gone missing. We should hold back, for the moment at least, hide, rebuild our forces and try to find out who or what it is we're fighting. We can't stop an enemy we don't understand, and I for one have no interest in throwing my life away on a fool's errand."

"I disagree, Tiberias." Kerrigan stated "The Dominion may not be the mastermind, but they are involved nonetheless. I'd say we hit them now, catch them with their pants down. Cutting off the snake's body may not be as good as cutting off the head, but it'll get the job done. Besides, I still have an axe to grind with our 'beloved' emperor."

"And how do you suggest you'll do that, darlin'? Shove your Zerg down the Dominion's throat?" Raynor got out of his seat and leaned against one of the consoles. "Look, your little raid won't go unnoticed. The public may never find out what really happened to us, but the Dominion military will. They are gonna have their guys on high alert throughout the sector. Anything worth hitting will be turned into a fortress. The only way we'll be able to get through to Mengsk is through the entire Dominion army. At best, we'll waste resources we should be spending on the hybrids. At worst, we'll cripple both our forces and leave the sector defenseless against the hybrid armies. Unless you're holding out on us big time, I think you'll wanna lay low for a while. Matt, General, are we anywhere near battle-ready?"

"Well…no, sir. We aren't. We haven't been able to contact any of our other ships yet, assuming any of them survived long enough to escape in the first place. Char was a killing field." Horner stated with an air of resignation. The Dominion had given their ships proper IFF codes to make sure they wouldn't be shot down by their allies. There was a chance that they survived. Even if they did, though, finding them would not be easy. Convincing them to tag along now that the Zerg were in the picture even less so.

Warfield simply sighed. He knew the Dominion combat doctrines better than anyone. As much as he hated to admit it, attacking now would be risky to the extreme. If they did, and Raynor was right about the hybrids, they might unwittingly gamble with the lives of every man, woman, and child in the sector. Assuming the Raiders would succeed in overthrowing Mengsk in the first place.

With no one else questioning him, Raynor started giving orders. "Alright, let's put our fleet back together again. General, I want you to start contacting as many of your former colleagues as you can, try getting us more support or information. Anything that helps us figure out what were up against. Matt, the ship's a bit overcrowded. Get me another one. Or a couple dozen other ones. Keep your eyes and ears open for any of our lost ships. Stetmann, go over all this data and start working on weapons that can kill these things. Now, I don't know when or where the Hybrids will hit us, but when they do, I expect us to be ready for them."

"Maybe the Protoss can help? They're supposed to respect you, and I'm sure they are no more happy to hear about the hybrids than we are. They still have a sizable fleet, if our latest intel reports are right." The general suggested.

"We can ask, but I don't know how much they can help. I saw what the Castanar hybrid did to the Protoss captured there. Chances are, they'll just want to glass our colonies from orbit rather than sending their warriors against something that can beat them to death with their own souls. I don't want to force their hand, at least not until we know how to fight the hybrids."

"I guess you know more about that than I do." Warfield grunted. "What about our other alien 'friends', though? I don't think my boys will appreciate having them running around the ship. Don't think your boys will feel any different."

"He's right, Jim. I've seen the looks people give us. I'll only be a liability if I stick around. Besides, if the Dominion claims we helped you, no one will believe it unless we're seen together." Kerrigan's fears were not unfounded. If it weren't for Raynor, she and Cain would have been thrown out the airlock a long time ago.

"I find it hard to believe myself." Muttered the aging general, mostly to himself.

Raynor was lost in his thoughts for a few moments. He needed all the help he could get, but putting faith in Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades, would not go well with his people. It seemed like no matter what he did, there would be repercussions. However, if the Fallen One and his armies are as powerful as he thought they were, he really had no choice but to trust the Zerg and pray the Brood War would not repeat itself.

"If we have an invasion on our hands, we're gonna need an army. A big one, bigger than what we can steal or recruit from the Dominion. Sarah, I want you to go to the edge of the sector and rebuild your Swarm. You will stay away from any Protoss or human colony you may come across, take back whatever Zerg the Dominion and the Protoss haven't killed yet and wait for my signal. When the hybrids come, you're gonna jump in and save the day."

"Sir…" Horner tried to protest but Raynor cut him short before he could finish.

"Do you have a better idea, Matt? We can't conjure an army out of thin air. How about you, general? Cade? Kachinsky? I know you all think I've lost it, and you might even be right, but I don't see any of you come up with a better plan. If any of you have an idea that won't get us eaten by hybrids, I'm all ears." The bridge turned silent. Each crew member was looking at the others, hoping one of them would have an epiphany. To be frank, Raynor was among them. He liked his solution no more than his crew did, and with good reason. History had a nasty habit of repeating itself. Even the captain held his tongue. As much as he disliked the idea of letting Kerrigan run off on her own again, he knew that there was no way he could stop someone that could rip his ship in half with her mind.

The silence was broken by tremor caused by the massive leviathan pulling alongside the vessel.

"That sounds like our ride, Jim." Kerrigan said "We should probably get going." Before your crew mutinies and kills us, she added telepathically.

As Sarah turned towards the exit, the rebel commander stopped her. "I'm not going to regret this, Sarah. Do you understand me?"

"You won't" It wasn't much of a reassurance, but it'd have to do.

"Good. I'll let you out." Raynor didn't just come with her to say goodbye. Honestly, he was genuinely worried his crew would turn on him. At least one of them must seriously be considering mutiny by now. He went with her to buy himself a little time. Time he'd need to think of a back-up plan, as well as a proper speech to his men.


	22. Chapter 22

**Access Shaft, Hyperion**

She knew there was so much to say, and yet Kerrigan didn't know where to begin. She wanted to tell Raynor how she loved him, reassure him that his faith in her wasn't misplaced, but she didn't know how. Ghost training never taught her how to express her feelings like that, and the Zerg weren't exactly helpful either. Sarah's mind went through all the possibilities before settling on telepathy.

"Jim, whatever happened, whatever's going to happen, none of it is your fault." Raynor looked at her, quizzically. "Yeah, that was me. I'm still a telepath, and you're still a pig. Now lay of the booze and start being the guy I remember." The commander chuckled, earning him a curious glance from the infested Terran marching behind them. Apparently he didn't pick up their telepathic conversation. Good, Kerrigan thought. At least she'd still have some sense of privacy.

"Before we leave," Tai remarked "there's still the matter of the Protoss. I know you are good friends with them and probably would hate to see them…"

"Are you asking me to talk them down, or asking for permission to kill them?" Raynor retorted.

"Well, if you could put in a good word and convince them not to hunt us, that would make life a lot easier for us. I'm not stupid, though. At least some of the Protoss are going to come after us no matter what you say or do. I just wanted to say that if any of them start attacking the planets we're trying to claim, we _will_ defend ourselves, hybrid threat or no."

Kerrigan did not like where Tiberias was going with this. "Tai, now's not a good time to start threatening people…"

Cain continued, in the most apologetic and diplomatic tone he could. "My lady, I'm not threatening anyone. I just feel the commander should be aware of the danger his allies could potentially represent to us…"

Raynor quickly silenced the others. "It's alright, Sarah, I know what he means. Look, I'll tell the Protoss what happened and try to convince them to give you a chance. No promises, but I guess it's better than nothing."

"There are still a lot of Zerg on Aiur. Maybe we can cultivate some goodwill by giving the Protoss their homeworld back. Would give us a good head-start too…" Kerrigan mused.

"No, bad idea. Don't go anywhere near Aiur. If the Protoss haven't invaded already, they're fixin' to do so any minute. Just stay away from their homeworld. I know you don't mean any harm, but I doubt the Protoss will see it that way. 'sides, they're gonna get real nervous if billions of Zerg suddenly vanished. If I were you, go find some hole no one has claimed yet and stay there. Keep your head down unless you're looking for one of your…the Queen's armies." Kerrigan approved of Jim's last minute correction. If she could convince him she was no longer the Queen of Blades, she'd at least have a chance at convincing others. She might even convince herself one day. "Just…don't attack any colonies, Terran or Protoss, even if you think they deserved it somehow. I don't think you'd want to give anyone more reasons to hate you."

Finally, they arrived at the armory where the Leviathan had docked. Well, 'docked'… The massive beast jammed its head through the armory doors and was waiting patiently for its masters to arrive. Before she entered the creature's 'docking ramp', Kerrigan gave Jim one last hug. She wanted to kiss him, but figured that that wouldn't be a good idea, at least not here. Sarah quietly swore to him that she'd make up for everything, that she'd do everything in her power make the Zerg into a force of good, yet for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that this could be the last time that they'd meet on friendly terms. Hopefully, she was wrong.

Raynor stood by as the Leviathan slowly and carefully pulled itself away from his ship and vanished into the dark. He looked at his men, trying to gauge the mood. On one hand, they were relieved. Relieved to be alive, but also that the Zerg were gone. Rescuers or no, they still put them on edge. However, many of his men were worried too. The commander shared their concerns. Would Kerrigan turn to evil again? Right now, he wasn't sure she wouldn't. She seemed prone to mood swings and her thirst for revenge was frightening to say the least. He made a promise to shoot her if she'd lose herself to the Zerg again. Jim just hoped it wouldn't come to that. He swore once that he'd kill the Queen of Blades. He hoped, no, prayed, that he had already fulfilled that promise.

**Bridge, Hyperion**

As Raynor made his way back to the bridge, his heart started beating in his throat. He quietly wondered if he should have ran for the nearest escape pod instead of coming here. Oh well, here goes nothing, he thought. When the door closed behind him, he still couldn't help but feel like he was trapped in a pit with a hungry bengalaas.

"If there's gonna be a mutiny, I'd sure appreciate it if you'd tell me now. I'd like a head start."

The crew remained silent. No one moved pulled out a gun or declare himself commander. That was probably a good sign. At least they still trusted Raynor enough not to turn on him right away.

"Hell, we shouldn't have let her go like that! I should have shot her in the head while I still could. Who knows what crazy shenanigans she's gonna pull off now?!" Kachinsky said, followed by several of the crew murmuring in agreement.

"That's a great plan, Kachinsky, shooting a former ghost. Especially if there is no way for her to dodge the shot and have the ship eaten by a giant monster." Raynor said with an uncharacteristically sarcastic tone. "Personally, I think it's healthier for all of us if we let her go. Especially since she _did_ just get us all out of the slammer. Now that we're free, we'll be able to at least keep our revolution going. We might even be able to solve the Zerg problem."

"You said something similar before the Brood War, sir. I don't like bringing up bad memories, but history is repeating itself." As much as Raynor hated to admit it, Matt had a point. "Let's face it: saving us from certain doom: Check. Sending us against a common outside foe: Check. Asking us to ally with someone we hate: Check. We need a plan to deal with the Zerg when they turn on us."

"Gee, I thought I still owed you drinks. Weren't you supposed to be the optimistic one?"

"I usually am, for better or for worse. It's just that…there's something off about her. I remember the redhead from the Sons of Korhal, and that…woman wasn't her. I don't think it's wise to trust her, not yet."

"We'll be fine, Matt. As long as that artifact is around, we still have our silver bullet. Here's our plan: snatch that artifact away from the Dominion while finding out how to stop the hybrids. This way, we'll keep the Dominion from making more hybrids and gives us leverage against the Zerg, should the Zerg try to cross the line again. Besides, something did change over the past four years: Kerrigan."

"You don't honestly believe that little game she and her freaky friend were playing, do you?" Warfield said in disbelief. "Even a ten-year old could see through that one."

"General, somehow this 'Cain' fellow doesn't sound like the kind of guy who'd lie about that. He seems far too proud of the Zerg for that."

"Doesn't mean I believe him. I don't trust anything that can take an explosive round to the face and doesn't die. Don't even get me started on 'her majesty'… I saw the reports on the Brood War too."

"Then you'd know that she _was_ different during the Brood War. When she contacted us, she was colder, more calculating and most importantly, she wasn't bothered at all by what she had done. Look me in the eye and tell me that there is no doubt in your mind that that's still the case."

"Raynor, if I've learned anything from the past few decades, it's that in war you can't rely on your feelings to make decisions. Yes, she sounds like she's on the level, but I think trusting her is too much of a risk."

"Would you trust her if I told you that she begged me to kill her if she goes astray? Would that be too much of a risk to you?" The room suddenly went silent. "I know this doesn't mean that she won't turn on us, but it does tell me that she doesn't want to. The way I see it, Kerrigan's fighting a battle inside her own head, one that, right now, could still go either way. If we turn on her, whatever humanity she still has left will be gone forever. We'll be stuck with another dangerous galactic power once this is over and we'll have no one to blame for it but ourselves. Now, I'm asking you to let her help us, for our own sakes, and that of everyone we care about. Without the Zerg to back us up against the hybrids, we're all as good as dead. I know I can't make you forgive her, I'm not even sure if we should, but what I can do is ask you to put your feelings aside, at least for now, and get the job done. Not for my sake, not for hers, but for the good of everyone in the sector. I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't certain that it's the right thing to do. Still, I'm not going to force any of you to go along with this, so I would like to remind you that your service is voluntary, as it always has been for everyone. I cannot make a decision like this for anyone except myself. I'm not ordering you to follow, I'm only asking you. If you, or anyone else for that matter, thinks I've gone too far, I'll make sure you'll be dropped off at the nearest spaceport so you can get on with your lives. If you want to leave, I won't think any less of you. I'm not gonna lie: we'll be throwing ourselves into the mouth of hell again before this is over. We will lose good people, whatever will happen. Even if we neutralize the Zerg and destroy the Dark Voice, I don't think we're gonna be around for the victory parade. One way or another, our revolution is coming to an end. What that end will look like is up to you."

When he was done, Raynor realized that someone turned on the 'broadcast' button on the console he was leaning on. Funny how his best speeches seemed to occur by accident, just like the one he gave on Char. There, it gave his men the courage to press on. Maybe it'd work here as well.

The commander waited for his crew's response, but the men simply stayed silent. "Now, if there is nothing else, I think we should get back to work." Slowly, the quiet faded and gave way to the usual hustle and bustle Raynor was used to. He smiled. It was inevitable that he'd lose some of his men on the next shore leave, but he seemed to have won over the majority. For now, at least. He'd better make it count.

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

"Ah, home sweet home!" Tai seemed to like the Leviathan a lot more than the metallic interior of the Hyperion. Admittedly, there is nothing wrong with having a Leviathan as a space ship, Kerrigan thought, once you get used to the heat, the humidity, the smell, the squishing beneath your feat… So perhaps a Leviathan wouldn't be Kerrigan's ship of choice. What an incredible un-Zerg-like notion, she felt. Probably not a bad thing.

"Well, the Hyperion isn't half-bad either…"

"If you say so, my Lady. Still, it just feels so…cold."

"Maybe because it feels like a sauna in here?" The leviathan let out a sad whine in response. "Hey, don't take it like that. I like saunas!"

"It's not just that, it's…well, why are there so few lights? And why don't they throw down a bloody carpet somewhere. My feet were freezing off!"

Kerrigan realized that Tai's complaining didn't really have anything to do with the Raider's ship. "If that's the worst you can say about the Raiders, they must have really left a good impression."

The infested Terran was taken aback. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You're on a ship filled with humans and you've spent probably a couple of hours talking with them. If the only thing you can whine about is their ship, they must have been pretty amazing."

"Well…I admit that they were…surprisingly competent and that their knowledge of Zerg physiology was a lot better than I expected, for humans of course. I…suppose they could be capable allies if we can trust them…"

Kerrigan chuckled. "Oh, just spit it out! You like them."

"I guess there are always exceptions to the rule." He said with an air of resignation in his voice. Good, Kerrigan thought. There might still be some hope left for the poor bastard.


	23. Chapter 23

_A/N Before I begin, I would like to say the following:_

_In this story, NO ONE, not even the narrator, is all knowing. Just because a character perceives himself invincible, it doesn't mean he is. Just because a character thinks someone will betray them, doesn't mean that he or she will. That said, it doesn't mean that they won't either. My narrator merely recites a character's thoughts. That does NOT mean that what the narrator says is always the truth. There are no gods in the SC universe, at least as far as I am concerned. There are only mortal beings of varying degrees of power. Everyone can make mistakes, everyone can misjudge._

_Anyway, back to the story:_

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

As Tai and Kerrigan entered the central chamber, the other sentient Zerg had already assembled. Za'gara was still licking her wounds, although she wasn't nearly as badly beaten up as Kerrigan had feared. Looked like she managed to pull out just in time. Abathur was twiddling his 'thumbs', anxious to get back to his work. One could hardly blame him for it: the contents of that lab were practically his equivalent of the Holy Grail. Far more important to him than little things like politics or Raynor's end-of-the-world prophecy. Still, he was the current master of evolution and genetics of the Swarm and his opinion did matter in situations like this. Izsha was in her corner, twitching and occasionally nodding to someone who wasn't there. While her body might be in the same room as the others, her mind obviously wasn't.

Za'gara was the first to speak up. "I must admit, I am impressed, my queen. Our raid was far more successful than I had believed it would be. You are truly a worthy successor to the late Queen of Blades."

"Well… thanks." Comparisons between her and the Queen of Blades did not sit well with Kerrigan. Still, it was nice that she managed to earn the broodmother's trust. "How bad are our losses? The Dominion did put up quite a fight and I feel like it's a lot quieter now." Normally, she always felt a massive sea of voices grating against the back of her skull: the collective presence of the Zerg Swarm, or at least the part that she controlled. Now, however, it was calmer, quieter. She thought she'd be happy to have her mental burdens lessened, even if it was only temporarily. Why did she feel like some part of her was missing?

"Our losses were…tolerable, my queen. I would suggest reclaiming another, weaker brood quickly. We have lost a sizable portion of our forces, but the enemy has taken nothing we cannot replenish. If I am not mistaken, the human commander wishes us to find a unpopulated world and rebuild there? If so, our losses here will soon become irrelevant."

Kerrigan nodded. "That is the idea. We're going to need as many Zerg as we can get, or at least as many as we can get away with. I think we should put as much distance as we can between ourselves and the major powers in the sector. The last thing we need is a human or Protoss counterattack. We can't stay under the radar for long, so we'll have to try to hold them off with diplomacy for the time being. I know none of you like it, but we'll need the Raider's help if we want to survive the hybrid invasion and slaughtering people won't earn his trust."

"So we are to obey the edicts of Terrans now? Allow these…weaklings to tell us where and how we should exist?"

Kerrigan knew a sapient Zerg would likely object to her plan, but she didn't expect the broodmother to be so vocal about it. This kind of insolence had to be stamped out, now. "No, Za'gara, you are to obey _my_ edicts. As strong as we are, we won't be able to survive a full-scale assault by any of the sector's major factions. Keeping at least one of them of our backs will seriously improve our chances. Not to mention that we still need someone to take care of that artifact for us. Speaking of artifacts…Abathur?"

"I fear I can tell you little about the Xel'Naga device other than what you already know. Its workings are still a mystery to us." Said the hulking creature with an air of defeat.

"But you know more than what Tiberias told the Terrans, don't you? Can you make us immune to it?" Kerrigan never expected that he'd tell the whole truth, not to the humans. While she wished that he did, she couldn't blame her for not trusting them.

"Very observant, my Queen. Yes, I believe that it is possible to make the Zerg somewhat resistant to the artifact's power. However, I cannot do so without severe consequences."

"What kind of consequences? If it's just an increase in cost or hatching time, I think it's worth the effort. We can always just limit the mutation to a single brood and discard it after the artifact is neutralized."

"I fear it is more than a mere logistical barrier. To survive the energy nova, the Zerg would require enormous reinforcement to their nervous systems. They would have a severely reduced mental capacity as well as become much more difficult to control. Even then, the nova would still be able to stun them for a few minutes. Needless to say, the benefits hardly outweigh the cost, and the damage the prevention measures will cause makes it unusable for any of the higher Zerg strains like ourselves."

Disappointing, but it was what it was. Kerrigan had to play with the cards she got. "Well, let's hope we don't need to use it then. I suppose we'll have to throw in our luck with the Raiders for now."

"You know they're going to turn on us the instant the hybrids are gone, right?" Tiberias said. "I don't think they'll believe the galaxy is big enough for both of our species to coexist. We should really plan for that."

"How about we worry about the hybrids first? I think they're a bigger problem now. Besides, I doubt they have the power to permanently destroy the Zerg anyway. They can't blast every corner of this universe. We'll be fine, I'll make sure of it when the time comes."

Tai backed down. The infested Terran was right, though. The humans and the Protoss (especially the Protoss) would certainly try to destroy the Swarm once they no longer needed them. Would Kerrigan be able to prevent this when it happened? Would she even want to? "Well then, Izsha, have you found us a nice planet to infest?"

"Not yet, mistress. Terran starmaps do not have accurate planetary data for the worlds beyond the sector's edge. I will require more time and the use of the leviathan's senses to find a suitable target."

"Alright, take what you need. In the mean time, are there any other broods you have been able to find?"

"Affirmative, mistress. While you were planetside on Char, I have managed to track down Na'fash and her brood. Her last known location is on a distant moon called Kaldir."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go pick her up!"

The former adjutant shook her head. "Unfortunately, when I attempted to contact her, she renounced her loyalty to you and announced that she was the new Queen of the Swarm."

Za'gara set out a sigh of disapproval. "She always was too ambitious for her own good. Strong, smart, but foolish. Her freedom must have gone to her head. So young to bear the burdens that an entire brood brings."

"She won't be getting any older. Izsha, set course for Kaldir." Kerrigan felt good saying that. Venting a little righteous anger would be good for the soul. Of course, reclaiming another brood would help as well. Hopefully Na'fash would bow to her like Za'gara did after a little clobbering.

**Bucephalus, High Orbit above Char**

Valerian Mengsk sighed at his desk. How could he have been so stupid? What he thought was a major Zerg invasion turned out to be nothing more than a diversion to draw the bulk of his fleet away from Char. It worked. He took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. When he showed up on Tyrador, there were hardly enough Zerg left to challenge a small city garrison, let alone be a serious threat to his forces. Now that he's back in orbit around Char, the full gravity of his mistake had hit him. Warfield's base was reduced to rubble. The Hyperion was gone, along with all of the Raiders and the Dominion soldiers that sided with them. No bodies, just gone. Could they have survived the Zerg assault? Maybe the Zerg let them live? Maybe they wanted to do something horrible to them? Or maybe Kerrigan just wanted to free her boyfriend…

That last part, in particular, had been bugging the young prince. He had always assumed that the infestation process would destroy any humanity the victim had. Even if it didn't, there was no way a someone could be trapped inside his own mind for four years and still emerge sane. He thought there would be nothing left of the former ghost operative. If that were the case, he wasn't really killing anyone since everything that made her human died years ago. Valerian was essentially putting her body to rest, doing her, and all of humanity, a favor. As stories of Kerrigan and her Zerg started to pile up, his theory seemed to lose more weight by the moment. For starters, the ridiculously low civilian body count on Tyrador. The only group that could cause so much damage in an urban environment with so little collateral was the Raiders, and they only pulled it off because they were usually avoiding large concentrations of civilians. The Swarm wasn't supposed to be like this. The Zerg were evil, all-consuming monsters. As his father often said: "Rule number one of running an empire, son: When the Zerg are a topic of conversation, the niceties go out the airlock." One of the few things they did agree on. Humanity was an orchard to them and civilians the lowest hanging fruit.

It broke Valerian's mind trying to think of a reason why the Zerg would spare civilians. The only reason he could think of is that the Zerg, or at least Kerrigan, didn't _want_ to kill them. The idea of a Zerg having moral objections to anything felt ridiculous. However, if it was the case, was he still doing the right thing? If the artifact _did_ restore Kerrigan's humanity, not just in body, but in mind as well, he was essentially sacrificing a human being for his own political gain. He couldn't let that happen. He swore on his mother's deathbed that he would never turn out like his father, yet the universe seemed to be trying very hard to get the prince to betray that promise. Indeed, was there any other way to save the Dominion? Riots and civil unrest were still commonplace across the sector. Unless something big happened, the Dominion would disintegrate. With an imminent Zerg retaliation on the horizon, disaster seemed inevitable. All because of his stupidity…

However, it was the loss of Dr. Narud and General Warfield that weighed most heavily on his soul. He considered Narud a good friend and an esteemed colleague, as well as the owner of a brilliant, if eccentric, mind. If he was really dead, it would be a set-back for the artifact project. Assuming he was dead, of course. He was last seen running into the labs, and his body was never found. Maybe he found some way to escape. It was probably naïve to think that the doctor did, but Valerian would be damned if he was going to give up on the man this easily.

Then there was Warfield. A father to him in all but name. If Raynor had escaped, it wasn't that unlikely that Warfield went with him. Raynor didn't leave men behind and a Dominion general would be an unbelievably valuable asset to his cause. Once again, there was no body to be found, but that didn't mean Valerian's hopes were vindicated. If he hadn't arrested him, maybe the general would have seen through Kerrigan's plan. Maybe the general would still be alive today…

The crown prince mentally chastised himself. Now was not the time for regrets. The people needed him to act. Future historians could debate whether or not Valerian did the right thing. If his ideas about the Zerg Queen were correct, maybe the she could be reasoned with. Maybe a peaceful solution was possible. Admittedly it would take more than a public apology and a bottle of fine wine for that to happen, but it doesn't mean that he shouldn't try. If hit failed, he could always end her by force.

His musings were interrupted by one of his aides, announcing that Nova had arrived. The prince wanted to hear her report. Hopefully she could fully clarify what had happened. More importantly, she could give more insight into the Zerg Queen. She is the only Dominion loyalist that has met the 'new' Kerrigan and lived to tell the tale. This was one of the many reasons why the prince wanted her to help investigate this mess. Also, it kept her occupied. Perfectionists tend to be sore losers and Nova took her defeat as a personal insult. If she didn't have something better to do, she'd probably start training so hard she'd re-break all her freshly-mended bones in a matter of days. Better to channel all that energy into something more productive.

"Agent Nova, please, sit down." Like a perfect gentleman, he offered the operative a seat. She sat down with a feeling of unease. Like everything else in the room, the chairs were designed to house pompous scientists or overweight politicians and the young woman felt like she could have repurposed them as beds. That said, when a crown prince offers you a seat… "What happened?"

"Well, they landed in a leviathan and overran the outer perimeter within minutes. Things quickly went FUBAR after that. General Warfield tried to rally the outlying bases, but our comms were jammed somehow. When I heard that the Queen of Blades herself was headed towards the labs, I called up all the squads I could and ordered them to sweep the building. Eventually, I found her and a large pile of my dead ghosts, we fought, she kicked my ass, I ran for it. The rest you already know." It was obvious that Nova did not feel like talking. Not surprising, considering that Kerrigan had just annihilated her team. His status was probably the only reason he managed to get an answer at all.

"What about the Raiders? Do you know where they went? Did the Zerg kill them?"

"Your highness, I was in the lab building throughout most of the battle. The only thing I know about the prisoners is what the surviving staff told me when you asked me to interrogate them. Most of the guards were killed or knocked unconscious. The Raiders are probably dead by now, or wishing they were."

"I'm not making that assumption without proof, Nova. What do you know?" His father made the same mistake with Kerrigan and the whole sector paid for it dearly. If Raynor was free again, Valerian had to be prepared for him.

"Well, according to the warden, a giant infested Terran barged down the door to his office, politely asked him directions to the commander's cell and complemented his hat." Valerian couldn't believe the ghost managed to say that with a straight face. Was she yanking his chain or has she finally lost her mind? "I assure you, I am completely serious and if you think I'm crazy, ask the warden. He'll confirm what I just told you. Anyway, some of the guards claimed that they saw a similar creature escort Raynor and the other prisoners out of the building. Knowing the Zerg, they aren't going to let the Raiders run free."

"Nova, you know that the Zerg have been acting odd since our victory. Do you still know the Zerg? Do any of us?"

"You haven't seen Kerrigan, sir! She was hell-bent on getting in that lab of yours. When I tried to stop her, she nearly ripped me apart." The ghost cried. Yes, she definitely wasn't rational.

"Wouldn't you do the same thing if someone barred your way?"

"Your highness, don't compare us. Her 'humanity' is just a façade. I saw her malice radiating from her eyes. I assure you, there is no good left in that mutant bitch!" Valerian simply sighed. He usually trusted Nova's judgment, but maybe she was too close to this to be rational. Still, she was probably the only one in the Dominion who could face Kerrigan head-on… "You want me to go after her? What am I supposed to do; keep her busy while someone else targets a nuke on us?!" Of course, telepathy.

"Well, I wanted to ask you to lead a team of our finest against her if we can't talk her down, but your plan sounds much more effective."

"Humor isn't your thing, my lord." The crown prince chuckled. Nova was probably right about that. Still, the fact that she knew she'd get away with making fun of him was a little unsettling. "Anyway, what were you cooking in that lab? They wiped the camera feeds, so I'm not sure what the Zerg found."

"Nothing of value, as far as I know. I took the artifact and all the things from the Hyperion's lab with me. To my knowledge, the place was largely empty. We had been doing fundamental research on that artifact after our project had run into some complications, so there wasn't much to take with us anyway."

"The Zerg apparently disagree. Some of the drones leaving the lab were carrying what I think were specimen containers, along with a bunch of other things I didn't recognize. As far as I could tell, they grabbed everything not riveted to the floor…"

"Specimen containers…what specimen containers?" The crown prince was confused. He ordered all the Project's specimens destroyed after the Castanar incident and never brought any of them to Char.

"They had some tadpole-like critters inside them, about the size of a large dog. Don't know what they were. Not sure if I want to know either: those things didn't feel right for some reason. Wait, you didn't know?"

"I didn't. I never ordered any of this and Dr. Narud would never start a project like this without my knowledge. We barely understood the artifact and its effects. He would have known better than to experiment further. It's just too dangerous" He requested the back-up files on his console, only to be denied access. "'Access Denied'? Impossible! I own Moebius, I have top clearance!"

"Allow me, your highness." The operative effortlessly hacked through the electronic defenses and downloaded the files. Still, the fact that this was necessary bothered Valerian. Why would anyone at Moebius want to hide things from him? "Let's see…Narud's personal messages, that might explain a couple of things…ah damn, they're encrypted. It's gonna take a while before you can read them."

"Can you tell me who he was communicating with?" The prince did not want to sift through the doctor's personal life like this, but his options were limited.

"That I can…Hmm, Korhal, various Dominoin groups, Raynor's Raiders, Umoja… Any of that sound familiar?"

"We don't have any current dealings with the Umojans. What has he been up to? Get this to the analysts right away! I want to know everything Dr. Narud has been doing." As Nova ran out the door with the data, Valerian set back in his chair. He had always trusted Narud. Why all this secrecy? Why all this deception? As thoughts began to consume his mind, all the crown prince could mutter was: "Good God, Narud. What have you done?"


	24. Chapter 24

**Somewhere beyond the Koprulu Sector**

The void cracked and moaned as the sleek, ancient vessel tore through the Great Beyond. Small, she was, but swift and silent. A perfect means to escape the doom that befell her master's kin. A perfect staging ground to engineer the doom of all others…

The vessel's ancient master shifted uneasily in his throne, or tried to. He was old, even by his people's standards, and his flesh was failing him. His kind could live for millions of years, but even their lives were finite. What was once the commanding seat of the vessel had been crafted into a life-support system, sustaining the Ancient One until he could complete his Great Work, his Legacy to the universe. It was a compromising and unfitting position for one such as him, but a necessary evil nonetheless. He could not leave his children without a father. Not until they grew strong enough to survive without him. Not until they had devoured their rebellious siblings and cleansed the galaxy of redundant life.

Ah, his children… Monsters, his kin had called them. An anathema to all they stood for. The blind, arrogant fools! How dared they doubt their greatness, their unlimited potential! They would posses both purity of essence _and_ purity of form. They would become all he and his brothers could have hoped for! No, the Great Lord had said. They were monstrous. Twisted. Dangerous. The enemy of all life. They would feed on their siblings before moving on to consume anything that lived. They would bring naught but chaos and destruction into the galaxy. Short-sighted fools! He was the greatest shaper of life amongst their kind. How _dare_ they doubt him! A perfect universe requires more than a perfect life-form to inhabit it. It requires the destruction of all those who would dare oppose the new Wanderers. The Ancient's brothers could not remain. If his Empire of Light had to be created by force, it would be forged from the blood of those too blind to validate their own existence. He found a simple, yet delightfully elegant solution. All it took was a mere suggestion into the Zerg Overmind's programming. A simple, all-consuming directive to find and devour the first-born. All their failures, swept away in a single blow. It was a pity that the Ancient could not see his kin be slaughtered by their own creation, an almost poetic punishment for their short-sightedness. Alas, he had been forced to flee the area before the pandemonium, or else the second-born would have consumed him as well. From his vessel, the same that faithfully served him to this day, he watched as the worldships of his brethren burned one by one. It was satisfying. It was…a relief. Their petty doubts and grievances would trouble him no longer.

Yet now, eons later, his great plans were interrupted again. Since living memory, the Ancient's foresight had guarded him from unpleasant surprises. He knew his enemy's plans even before they did, allowing him to adapt his plans accordingly. But now, a new player had entered the field. A player no one could have foreseen. The sector the Protoss inhabited had seen a new arrival: a race of small, seemingly insignificant bipeds called 'humans'. Though weak and fragile, these creatures had proven annoyingly difficult to eradicate. Where they came from was a mystery. They were not his creations, of that he was certain but they were resilient nonetheless. Also, in spite of their weaknesses, it was undeniable that they were a real threat, as well as an enigma. Humanity had made war upon the Protoss, the Zerg, and itself, often simultaneously. By rights, their civilization should have collapsed under the strains of conflict, yet they emerged from every crisis seemingly stronger than before. Were it not for their fractious nature, humanity would have crushed the other powers in the sector under its heel. In a way, they were like a twisted mockery of the Ancient's own creations. That insult alone would normally be enough for him to wipe their filth of the face of the universe, but they had grown too powerful, too quickly.

Fate is cruel. When sentient beings became part of the equation, the future becomes exceedingly difficult to predict. The Protoss and the Zerg were at least predictable to some extent: the former due to their lack of creativity, the later due to their (literal) single-mindedness. The Children of Man, however, were different. One choice, one betrayal, one unexpected decision from a mere pawn in the great game, could change everything.

The gift of foresight is often a double-edged sword. On the one hand, one can predict a great many things, on the other, the damage done when the future is changed can be horrific. It is a commonly held belief that fate is like a branching tree: each decision leads to a number of others, which leads to others still. Manipulate the decisions and one can steer the future towards a desired path. This notion, however, is a gross oversimplification. In truth, predicting the future is far less elegant, and far more complicated. It is more like reading the threads in a tapestry crafted by a madman, forming, curving, and twisting, seemingly at random to an untrained eye. The Ancient often found himself threading the same ground countless times, trying to untangle the web. Each thread affected the greater whole in some fashion but fully understanding the influence each had was, to say the least, a difficult and time-consuming process. Most lives made only a small impact in the grand scheme of things. They would appear, touch a few others, then vanish into the void, leaving barely more than a whisper. Others, however, would curve wildly, touching some, breaking others, changing the entire pattern of the final tapestry. These are the heroes and champions, the scientists and the poets, the creators and the destroyers.

These are ones that change the world forever.

Humanity had no shortage of such individuals. Indeed, ever since their species set foot in the sector, the Ancient had watched his carefully constructed future unravel piece-by-piece. As much as he enjoyed the occasional surprise, the sheer impact these Terrans were having on his plans were nothing short of frightening. One of these humans, however, stood out above all others. One who has been betrayed, and betrayed in turn. One who has left her birth-species, yet did not fully return. One that has perished, but still draws breath. The Overmind's protégé. The Swarm's 'salvation'. Before any other, the Last of the Wanderers knew the magnitude of the power this child, this Kerrigan, wielded. Her existence alone sent his plans into disarray. Whenever her strand affected his or that of his children, naught but doom for the Ancient One followed in its wake. If his Great Plan were ever to bear fruit, Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of the Swarm and antithesis of the Grand Scheme, must be destroyed, one way or another. To achieve this end, he had to accelerate his plans over the last few years, lest the powers of the Koprulu Sector grew too strong for his fledgling children to vanquish. As risky as it was, he knew his children would eventually match the Overmind's final gambit, but only if he could make them so.

How ironic that the humans, the greatest threat he had ever faced, would turn out to be his salvation. For every noble soul the human race possessed, there seemed to be an equal number of greedy, short-sighted fools willing to sell out their morals or their kin for the promise of power or material wealth, without even knowing that their actions would doom themselves and their species. In many ways, these men were even worse than his own kin ever were. Nevertheless, he needed their aid. At first, he believed that he could splice the genetic material of the First- and Second-born together with ease. While his vessel possessed a small laboratory, but it quickly grew insufficient when the Queen of Blades was created. The demands were simply too great. The humans, however, had the resources he needed. A few infiltrators and mind-tricks were all that was needed to convince their scientists to dance to his tune. Indeed, one of his agents even managed to get into the upper echelons of the Terran 'Dominion'. Admittedly, the Ancient expected nothing less from the master shape-shifter, a man who has had so many names he could not remember the one his father gave him. Speaking of the man, the servant had returned the ship. It was rare that he would contact the Ancient at all, since it could compromise his cover. Something must have gone wrong, yet again, for him to risk seeking his master's guidance.

"Ah, Duran. Is that the name you use?"

Duran bowed down before the throne. "It will suffice, my lord. I bring ill news from the Koprulu sector."

"Another set-back, I presume? My patience for failure is not unlimited, child…What is it now?"

"The Terran invasion of Char has been a success, as you predicted. Commander Raynor's leadership and our device allowed them to triumph against your wayward children and defeat the Queen of Blades."

The Ancient knew of their invasion. Against Duran's wishes, he allowed it to continue. His servant believed that using the device as a weapon was too dangerous, both for the device and for their plans. It was probable that the humans would investigate the device and would discover its true purpose. He deemed it worth the risk, nevertheless. While his hybrids would certainly be able to defeat the Zerg Queen, letting his enemies destroy each other would make the eventual cleansing much easier. It was an opportunity he couldn't miss. However, Duran would not be here is everything went as planned. "Yet all is not well, is it? Kerrigan still lives, does she not?"

"You are correct, lord. The Dominion demanded that she would be taken to Korhal and tried. She managed to escape and appears to be reuniting her broods."

If the Ancient could still walk, he would be ripping everything in the room apart in a fit of rage. Eventually, he calmed himself before he literally blew a fuse. "What of our device and our experiments?"

"The crown prince took it with him as his trump card against the Swarm. The Queen tricked him, and she invaded our labs on Char while the fleet and the device were away. I fear…that our experiments have been lost. I believe the Zerg took them."

The Ancient frowned in annoyance. "How close were we to completion?"

"Nearly, lord. The creatures we created were viable and controllable, but there are still many imperfections…"

"Can you recreate them elsewhere?" The Old One's patience was running out.

"We could create more of the specimens, but fully completing the process will take many months."

"Create me an army, Duran. The time has come to sweep these weak and impotent life-forms from the stars."

"My lord, they are still imperfect! We need more time! If we release them now…"

Duran collapsed as his master's booming voice shot through his skull. "Do you question _me_, child?! Do you doubt my vision?! If we wait, the Zerg will become strong again. Alone, they may not be a challenge to us, but they will weaken my children enough for the others to destroy us. We will strike now, while our enemies still fight amongst themselves."

"Lord, please, it will still take time to do as you ask."

"I know, which is why I ordered you to place sleeper agents within our enemy's organizations over the years. A contingency. Did you and your brethren succeed?"

"We did. We have moles in Terran scientific organizations, as well as military and paramilitary groups. We even managed to infiltrate the Protoss Protectorate. The Zerg Swarm is still problematic, however. The risk of capture and conversion is too great."

It was disappointing that the Zerg couldn't be undermined like the other races, but in their current, weakened state, it wasn't necessary. "It matters not, Duran, for the Swarm is broken and weakened. Let their siblings loose upon them. When we are ready to strike, they will not be strong enough to resist us."

"Lord, the Protoss leaders have commanded that their fleets stay within their territory. I do not know why they hesitate to strike at the Zerg, but I know that their armies have yet to march."

This was very unexpected, and very unwelcome. The threads of fate said nothing of the First-born's hesitation. It puzzled the Ancient greatly that they would not strike the Swarm at such a golden opportunity. This, however, could be corrected. "Then use your agents and make them. Break their precious unity. Do as much damage as you can. My children will _not_ be denied their birthright!"

"Yes, my lord. At once."

As Duran returned to his gateway to perform his tasks, the Ancient reflected on the trials ahead of him. The path would not be simple, but that would make his final victory all the more satisfying. Whatever would come to pass, he knew that the twilight was upon the denizens of the Koprulu Sector.

Their light has been expended.

Their season in the sun has passed.

When the dawn would come again, naught but his perfect children would remain.

_A/N Big Bad makes his introduction, complete with the most pompous language yours truly can put on paper…monitor screen, well, whatever. Just so that there's no confusion: the creature I call the Ancient IS the Dark Voice. I didn't expect him to refer to himself as the Dark Voice, so in his mind, he'll call himself something else._


	25. Chapter 25

**Bridge, Hyperion**

"…We let her go after that. Not that we'd be able to stop her, but I'm sure you understand I'd rather have the two of us part peacefully."

Jim Raynor was sweating bullets. Trying to explain how he escaped the Dominion with help from the Zerg was difficult regardless of whom he was talking to. Trying to explain it to Hierarch Artanis, the de facto leader of the Protoss Protectorate, even more so. However, he promised Kerrigan he'd try to talk them down and he wasn't going to disappoint her. Of course, having a good reason still didn't make talking to the Protoss Hierarch about this any easier. Artanis may be his friend, but the rebel commander wouldn't be surprised if he cut their com-link and ordered his fleets to hunt down and quarantine the Hyperion, just in case they picked up any unwanted 'hitch-hikers'. While the Hierarch's was extremely happy to hear that the Raiders were still alive, his good mood swiftly faded when he heard how Raynor managed to pull it off. Even more so when the Commander told him about Zeratul and the hybrids found on Char. The commander had no idea what exactly was going through his mind. It was always annoyingly difficult to tell what Protoss were thinking when they kept their proverbial mouth shut.

"In other words, Kerrigan is gonna camp on the ass-end of nowhere and is willing to play live-and-let-live with your people. She won't attack you unless you attack her or her Zerg first. So, I'm kindly asking you to hold off your fleet. We'll need her help when the hybrids show up. We can't afford to have you two at each other's throats."

Artanis simply stared at him. As far as Raynor could tell, the Protoss was rarely left speechless. If the situation was different, Matt might have said something about marking the calendar. Now, however, the captain stood by Raynor's side as if he was afraid the Hierarch would leap out of the screen and tried to strangle them. Finally, Artanis broke the silence.

"Commander Raynor, you have always struck me as a wise man. What do you believe my response would be?"

"Something along the line of 'Have you gone mad?' and 'Stop telling me how to do my job!'"

The Protoss let out a slight chuckle. Finally, thought Raynor, some emotion out of him. "Why you humans insist on making jokes, even in the face of oblivion, is beyond me. However, I fear you are correct. We already heard of the Queen of Blades' escape…"

"Look Artanis, sorry for interrupting, but the Queen of Blades is gone. The artifact killed her. Justice has been served. You're fixin' to hunt down a young woman who has just as guilty of your people's suffering as I am. Even if you can't forgive her, at least try to understand that we're all screwed if she dies." The Protoss was taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the commander's retort. To talk like that to one of the most powerful people in the sector took a lot of courage, especially when you are telling him to spare the worst mass murderess in history.

"I…understand. Far better men than I have trusted your judgment and I would be a fool to ignore it now. However, your history with the Qu…Kerrigan is known to us. I am willing to believe you, but the other tribal leaders may not, in spite of your service to our people. Therefore, I must ask: do you still care for her? If the worst comes to pass, would you be able to take her life to preserve the sector, in spite of your feelings?"

Artanis made a very good point. Jim promised Kerrigan he'd put her out of her misery if she turned into the Queen of Blades again, but whether he'd actually be able to do it is another matter. However, this was politics. Politics isn't about reality, it's about making your opponent think what you want him to think. "If she goes crazy on us again, I will make sure she dies, even if I have to put a bullet through her skull myself. I would do this _because_ of what I feel for her, not in spite of it. The Kerrigan I know, the one I care for, would rather die than live on as an abomination."

The Hierarch shook his head. "I am as much a politician these days as I am a warrior, commander. Knowing when someone is sincere is important, and I am no stranger to Terran mannerisms. I can tell that you want to convince me while you are uncertain yourself. You wish to believe that the Kerrigan you knew has returned, but you know as well as I that you cannot assume this is so without further proof. The Zerg taint all they touch, and I fear that it will consume her in time, even if the Makers' artifact slew the Queen of Blades as you think it did. However, I have been visited by Zeratul a short while ago, who said many of the same things you are saying now. The discovery of those…hybrids seems to confirm his tale, at least partially. If they are as powerful as they appear, then there is a strong pragmatic reason to allow Kerrigan and her broods to exist."

This went better than expected, Raynor thought. "So you'll talk to your people, then? Get your fleets to back off?"

The Hierarch lowered his head. "I fear I cannot do that…"

"Whadaya mean you can't do that?! You're the Hierarch, aren't you?"

"You overestimate my position, James Raynor. I am merely a referee, not an emperor. My power is far more limited than my title would lead one to believe. The Hierarchy is fragile as it is. Many of my people will not be able to leave Kerrigan be, regardless of my orders or the validity of my reasons. Someone will come after her, regardless of my wishes. I can, however, give them another purpose. Redirect their wrath towards another target. Will Kerrigan visit Aiur on her travels away from here?"

"I told her to stay away from your homeworld. I think she understands that going anywhere near it wouldn't be a good idea, even if her only purpose is to recover the broods there and tell them to leave. I could change her mind, if you want to…"

"No. Your offer is appreciated, but retaking Aiur is our responsibility. I will order my people to prepare to reclaim it. Many of the tribal leaders have been lobbying for the forces required and without the Queen of Blades, the swarms will be rudderless. An easy prey for the Golden Armada. While I fear it is inevitable that some splinter groups will attempt hunt Kerrigan down, I believe I can keep the majority of my people away from her. The reclamation of our homeworld will help hold the protectorate together, especially if the hybrid threat turns out to be real."

"If? If?! Zeratul's testimony and the contents of the lab should be more than enough. What else could you possibly need? Are you gonna wait till they knock down your door?" This level of inaction seemed eerily familiar to Raynor.

"I am afraid that some members of the Hierarchy will remain in denial, regardless of what I tell them. Zeratul has already departed, whereto I cannot say. It is our nature, I fear, to close our eyes and pretend outsiders are no threat to us. That manner of arrogance was not limited to the Conclave, unfortunately. By slowly mobilizing our forces, I hope that we will be ready if the threat is as dire and acute as you think. I will attempt to keep the knowledge of Kerrigan and her vulnerability from the others. In return, I would like a few of the hybrids you recovered for study, so that we may know our enemy before they strikes us."

"Sure, no problem. We have more than enough for our own research anyway. Just one more favor: Please make sure humanity doesn't end up being blamed for creating these things. We don't have the technology to make them on our own. Someone else is helping the Dominion, but I don't know whom. Mengsk has done enough to his people, I'd hate to see them suffer even more because of him."

"You have my word, Commander Raynor. I will send a ship to rendezvous with yours. If you would excuse me, I must prepare to bring this matter to the Hierarchy."

The monitor faded back into static before powering down. Captain Horner, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, finally spoke up. "Do you really think it was a good idea to tell them about Kerrigan, sir? For all we know, we could have just pointed them into her direction. I mean, Artanis is one of the good guys, but I don't think the others will be as understanding."

"I agree, Matt, but they would have found out about it sooner or later anyway. Better they hear it from us."

"Still, if they turn on her in force…"

"Then she'll have to fight them alone. The few battlecruisers we managed to recover aren't going to hold up against a full scale assault. But she's smart. I'm not worried about her being killed by the Protoss, I am more worried about the Protoss being slaughtered by her. Anyway, have you traced those messages yet?"

"Why, I'd thought you'd never ask…"

**Aurigan Enclave, Shakuras**

Admiral Urun was at a loss. He just returned from an meeting called by Hierarch Artanis himself. Judging by the recent news of the Queen of Blades' escape, the admiral thought they were going to discuss how to hunt her down. After all, she was, without question, the greatest threat to the Protoss Protectorate in existence. If she would be allowed to regain her strength, the damage could be enormous. However, instead of ordering the hunt, Artanis ordered them to start preparing for the reclamation of Aiur.

Under most circumstances, the admiral would have been overjoyed. He had been trying to get the other members of the Hierarchy to lend him the forces needed for such an undertaking, but they have always labeled it as too dangerous. With the Queen of Blades apparently weakened, now was the perfect opportunity to take the planet back. After all, the Zerg there were essentially leaderless. Without a central intelligence to guide them, individual hives would not be able to coordinate an effective defense. In such a state, they'd have no chance against the might and discipline of the Protoss military. Of course, the homeworld also contained invaluable technology and cultural artifacts. For the weapon-smiths of the Furinax tribe and the scholars of the Shelak tribe, the invasion could not begin soon enough.

However, Urun had other concerns. The Queen of Blades wasn't dead, she was still out there. Reclaiming Aiur would be pointless if the Zerg would swoop in from another direction and devour them all. The admiral knew full well that the loss of the broods on Aiur would only be a delay. So he spoke out, asking if the Hierarch had forgotten the fact that a victory on the homeworld would change little in the long run. He wanted to know what their leader would do when Kerrigan showed her face again. Artanis' response was probably the most insane thing he had ever heard. According to him, Kerrigan and the being known as Queen of Blades were two separate individuals. The Queen of Blades perished on Char, and with her, any threat an united Zerg Swarm would face. When asked what proof he had of this, he claimed to have the word of James Raynor. The Terran had met the 'new' Kerrigan and, according to Artanis, was certain that she was her old, noble self again. The Hierarch even showed a small part of their conversation, where the commander lashed out against him for claiming Kerrigan and the Queen of Blades were the same. It was, undeniably, a powerful piece of evidence. For many of the tribal leaders, it might have been enough, given the incredible amount of weight that Raynor's word had to them. However, the Hierarchy was, as ever, divided on which path to take. Some, including Urun, believed that justice would never be served until the Queen's head was lashed to the sanctum's walls. Others wanted to take a more cautious approach. The sanctum quickly filled with the telepathic voices of arguing Protoss until the Hierarch finally silenced the crowd. He ordered that everyone would retreat to their enclaves to study the new evidence and that they would vote on the matter a few moonrises from now. Until the matter was decided, the fleet would not leave Protoss territory.

Urun was a warrior, impetuous and impatient. The Hierarch tarried too long for his liking. Someone needed to act, and act soon, or their window of opportunity would close on them. However, he didn't know what to do.

"Admiral, you seem troubled?" His second-in-command, a wise high templar of near legendary psionic might, approached him. He was an excellent soldier, as well as a marvelous speaker, and had risen through the ranks of the Auriga Tribe rapidly in the past year. Many wondered if he would not be a better tribal leader than Urun would, but the templar always turned down the offer, claiming that something personal in his past made him unworthy of such an honor.

"The Hierarchy is as it always has been: fractious and inefficient. I am beginning to see the wisdom in leaving Shakuras like Nahaan of the Ara tribe. This politicking is taking a greater toll on me than any foe ever has."

"Indeed. Perhaps the time has come to take matters into our own hands, as mighty Tassadar once did."

"You ask me to hunt the Queen of Blades without the Hierarchy's consent. Such would be treason! The political ramifications would be extreme. If we decide to act on our own accord, how can we prevent others from doing the same thing?" Urun may not like the current political system, but if there was one thing he understood as a soldier is that you _never_ disobey an order. In spite of its faults, the Protectorate was infinitely better than anarchy would be. Tassadar only turned on the Conclave because he was certain that his cause was just. The admiral was not so sure.

"Perhaps, but your success could also unite them. Even if it cannot, I am confident that the Protoss will outlive a state of anarchy, as we outlived the Aeon of Strife. I do not think we can outlive a resurgent Swarm. The Queen of Blades must be dealt with, once and for all, regardless of the color of her hide."

The admiral remained quiet, contemplating his next action. While following his majordomo's advice could cost him his honor, his status, and possibly his people's unity, the Zerg were indeed a greater threat. "I fear I have little choice. Adun preserve us… Assemble our fleet. We will find and destroy their wretched kind or die trying!"

"I have already sent our forces to the borders, admiral, as well as tracked down the locations of several major hives. The Fleet awaits your orders."

"Well done, templar. It appears you knew my decision before I did."

"To be one step ahead of you is my duty, admiral." The templar calmly replied.

"Indeed it is. Order the fleet to split up and hunt down the known Zerg hives. I want you to go ahead and direct our warriors. I shall remain here and bear the inevitable political fallout."

"As you wish, admiral. I will not fail."

"I am confident that you will not, High Templar Karass. En Taro Tassadar!"

_A/N Two things: Yes, I know what happened at the end of the 'Whispers of Doom' mission (I've played through the game about 4 times already) and yes, you're reading that right._


	26. Chapter 26

**Leviathan, High Orbit over Kaldir**

"We have arrived. Scanning…That's odd. Biomass concentrations are far lower than expected. We can only detect a few small hives scattered around the planet with no apparent connectivity. No trace of Na'fash herself. There are also pockets of non-sentient indigenous creatures, but not large enough to be an explanation."

Tai made his dislike for the planet abundantly clear. "It's a frozen pisshole, Izsha. The only things that grow here are glaciers. I wouldn't be surprised if we found Na'fash looking like a popsicle. God, I hate ice planets. They always make my plates feel like someone dressed me up in a suit made of broken dinnerware."

"Oh, that's so sad. Should we visit a nice spa once this is over? Maybe a nice manicure for your poor, little claws?"

"That would be fabulous, Izsha." Cain replied, in the most mockingly effeminate voice he could muster. "Fine, I'll shut up. Let's just get this over with."

Kerrigan had largely ignored her underling's bantering, in favor of studying the leviathan's sensor data. She was puzzled. "Why would Na'fash bring her brood here?"

"This is one of the most inhospitable places in the Koprulu sector." Izsha replied.

"So she wanted to avoid notice."

"I do not think so, Mistress. It is more likely that she hoped to create a stronger swarm in this environment."

"Of course. That's how Zerg think. That's how I have to think. Get a few of those sac pods ready. Na'fash took what's ours and I don't take kindly to stealing."

"Unfortunately, there are some complications." Spoke Abathur. "Your swarm does not thrive in the cold of this moon. They will live, but they cannot function at their optimum capacity here."

"You're in charge of adapting my army. I thought they were stronger than that." The queen reprimanded.

"The Swarm is hardy but temperatures here are as cold as space. Only certain strains like the leviathans are adapted for such an environment. It would have been too costly to adapt the rest."

"Well, they need it now. Give them the adaptations."

"I will begin work immediately. I may require samples from the indigenous organisms to complete the process."

"Double time it. Freezing to death isn't going to convince Na'fash to bow down."

**Ice Valleys, Kaldir**

The sacs landed with a familiar 'splat'. While Kerrigan still didn't like the idea of falling ten kilometers in a little bag of flesh, she understood the necessity of them. Thanks to their pods, the loyalists were safely dropped near what looked like Na'fash's primary hive. On their way, they would encounter what looked like large concentration of indigenous creatures. Hopefully enough to allow Abathur to work his magic.

After the queen cleaned the goo of her weapon, she said "Na'fash is going to learn the hard way that I am Queen. Where do we go?"

"There is a hive on the other side of this valley, most likely the place where she took her brood. There is still no sign of her personally, however."

"Odd. Thanks Izsha, I can handle it from here."

"There is another problem." The adjutant continued. "There are flash freeze storms here that will drop the temperature so fast almost all heat is lost, freezing all in place. The indigenous species are adapted to this, however. It is probable that Na'fash would have found a way to adapt as well."

"Well, we better get help from the locals, then."

Kerrigan led the way, followed by Tai, Larry, and a batch of Zerglings. It wasn't much of an army, but she felt there was no reason to take more than necessary into the cold. She could always get reinforcements by orbital drop, once she found the means to work around the freeze problem.

Tiberias' description of 'frozen pisshole' was surprisingly accurate. Nothing but snow-covered mountains, as far as the eye could see. The winds were cutting straight through to the bone. Even the zerglings were shivering in a futile attempt to keep warm. Kerrigan wondered if she'd wake up tomorrow with a big coat of fur when Izsha's voice rang in her mind.

"The flash freeze has arrived."

The temperature dropped to near absolute zero over the course of a few seconds, literally sucking the heat out of the Zerg's bodies. Kerrigan was able to psychically convince the thermal energy that her suit was a nice, cozy place to be, but her underlings weren't so persuasive. She could only watch helplessly as they were turned into frozen statues. She hoped Abathur was right when he said that they'd be able to survive. If not…

"Flash freeze storm is fading"

Thankfully, all of the Zerg started moving again. They were weakened, but still alive. Good, she thought. Weakness will pass. Death generally won't.

"That was…unpleasant. Next time, I'll try burrowing. At least then, no one can take potshots at us." Tai checked his gun. "Well, at least this thing's still working. Say, does anyone know what the indigenous creatures look like?"

"No, not really." Kerrigan answered. "No one has ever been here before, for obvious reasons, and the leviathan couldn't get a visual with this weather. Still, with all this snow, I'd expect them to be…"

"Horned, furry and in possession of the foulest smelling breath since Larry downed a keg of Umojan beer?"

"What makes you think…" The sound of gunfire shattered her thoughts and she instantly took aim at the source of the commotion, only to see the infested Terran standing over the corpse of a creature matching that very description.

"Well, I think it just tried to eat me. I wasn't expecting a warm welcome in this weather, but this is just plain rude. Anyway, we should find some more of these…whatever they are. They seem to be running around just fine in this bloody cold."

Kerrigan agreed and led her troops onwards. After an hour and a few more snow-creatures later, the loyalists came across something odd: other Zerg. A pack of roaches, if she remembered correctly. However, these Zerg simply stood there, minding their own business, rather than attacking the interlopers. Without a higher entity to prevent this, Kerrigan simply took control of them and ordered them to fall in line. Still, the implications were worrying. "These Zerg are feral. Where's Na'fash? Why isn't she commanding her brood?"

"Maybe you can ask when we find her. It seems very unlike a broodmother to just leave her Zerg littered around. Convenient for us though. These roaches can regenerate injuries when they're burrowed. Very useful for traps."

"Thanks for the heads-up, Tai, but that doesn't explain how they got here. We should get going." Unlike her subordinate, Kerrigan was very concerned by this turn of events. As far as she knew, a broodmother was strong enough to reach across the planet. Only death would have kept Na'fash from commanding her forces. If her suspicions were correct, Kerrigan might have a serious problem on her hands. Broodmothers don't drop dead for no reason.

Following Izsha's directions, the Zerg found a large pack of snow-creatures, led by a particularly large and dangerous-looking beast. Abathur speculated it to be their matriarch and believed that it would provide him with the samples they needed to adapt to the cold. With the help of their new-found reinforcements, the Zerg pressed the attack. The snow-creatures charged blindly, trying to beat their opponents into the ground, but with only limited success. The Zerglings were too fast for their strong, but clumsy attacks and the roaches simply weathered their pummeling with their thick shells, even as their claws were torn off. However, the Zerg weren't doing too well, either. The thick hides of the creatures were difficult to get through with acid and teeth and, in spite of beasts' relatively few numbers, surrounding them was impossible in the narrow passage. The battle seemed like it could go either way when Izsha's voice rang through their heads.

"The flash freeze has arrived."

Kerrigan mentally swore. Her Zerg could burrow, but that would leave her dangerously exposed. She ducked behind a nearby set of rocks as her Zerg dug into the ground and disappeared. Thankfully, these snow-beasts were tragically stupid creatures and seemed more concerned with figuring out how and why their prey suddenly vanished. Kerrigan hid for a few agonizing minutes while waiting for the storm to pass, praying that the beasts wouldn't smell or see her. She cursed herself for not taking a shower back on the Hyperion.

"Flash freeze storm is fading"

This was the moment she'd been waiting for. After receiving an all-clear from her forces, Kerrigan hatched a plan to turn the whole situation to her advantage. Loading a high-explosive round into her rifle, she took aim for the matriarch's head and pulled the trigger. As the creature's face caved in onto itself, the others charged at the queen, blind with rage. Just as planned.

The Zerg popped up out of their burrows and started to lash at everything without an exoskeleton. In their bloodlust, the snow creatures didn't realize what was happening until their lower legs were bitten off. They fought valiantly, but they were no match for the Zerg's superior numbers and cohesion in close combat. Kerrigan smirked as she felt the creatures die one by one, when one of the larger beasts leapt behind her cover and smacked her into a nearby wall. She yelped as the creature walked towards her, preparing to avenge its brethren. She held up her arms in a instinctive attempt to soften the inevitable blow, but then…nothing. The blow never came. Kerrigan opened her eyes to see the beast convulsing on the ground. It howled in pain before little balls of flesh and teeth viscerally tore their way out of its body, killing their host in the process.

"My lady, my lady! Are you…" Tai ran towards her, visually worried about his leader's condition, when he noticed the beast's perforated body. "Right, who am I kidding…"

"It's gonna take more than the abominable snowman to get rid of me, Tai, but thanks. Whatever you did, your timing couldn't be better."

"What, the broodlings? I didn't do that, you did."

Only now did she notice the lower part of one of her gloves had ruptured, and that a soft pain was running through the same arm. A strange, purplish fluid had oozed out of the hole, easily distinguishable from the bright-red blood and viscera that used to belong to her victim. She wondered to herself how she did that, if she could do it again, or if she even should. Whatever powers human ghosts could have, this certainly wasn't one of them. The idea of having the eggs of little parasitic monstrosities growing inside of her was, frankly, nauseating.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an unusually excited Abathur. "Success, my queen! I have fully assimilated the local wildlife's DNA. The Swarm is now immune to the flash freeze. The matriarch's DNA was fascinating. If you find more, it will help my mutations!"

"Alright, well done. Let's find Na'fash." She picked up her gun, cleared her head, and went underway.

Another hike through the snow later, and the loyalists found themselves looking at a hive cluster, however, like the feral Zerg before them, the Zerg defending this hive made no move to attack the newcomers. Instead, they simply fell in line as well. The drones went back to harvesting and the hatchery started to spawn larva again. As convenient as this was, Kerrigan was not at all pleased.

"Something is very wrong. Leaving a small number of Zerg behind is one thing, but an entire hive? Something must have happened. Where's the primary hive?"

"Umm, I think this _is_ the primary hive, at least if Izsha's directions make any sense. Oh, and I think I know what happened to Na'fash. Look over there, down the valley."

Through the scope of her rifle, Kerrigan saw what her underling was looking at. Looks like they found their broodmother, or at least what was left of her. The corpse was badly beaten, but it was definitely Na'fash, surrounded by a multitude of dead Zerg.

"Looks like someone killed her before we could. I wonder who? The snow-creatures?"

"You can stop guessing, Cain. I think I know the answer."

On the west side of the hive, a group of Protoss appeared. Armed, dangerous, and, judging by the emotions Kerrigan felt in their minds, intent on burning this hive to the ground. They had come here, hoping to find a simple target. Instead, they found her.

"The Queen of Blades?! But you are so…weakened. The reports spoke the truth! Protoss, we must inform Shakuras! They will send the Golden Armada…They will destroy you."

Big problem. Kerrigan knew she would never be able to face the full might of the Protoss military head on. She had to try diplomacy, and hope for the best. "Protoss commander, I know we have a history…"

"SILENCE! The first-born will suffer your duplicity no longer! You may have fooled James Raynor, but your treachery will not fool us! Your lies and deceit end here!" Before she could respond, the Protoss threw her out of his mind.

"Mistress," Izsha said "the Protoss seem to have activated Psi-link long-range communication devices. They must be disabled before they can contact the rest of their fleet."

"Izsha, why aren't they using normal telepathy? And how could we have missed a Protoss army?"

"This world is beyond the Khala's reach, mistress, and the ice storms make it near impossible to detect anything. If their ships had already landed, hiding them would have been simple."

"Well, great. We'll have to knock out those communicators, then, one way or another."

Kerrigan did not want to go to war with the Protoss, but they had forced her hand. Apparently Jim wasn't able to talk them down. Not that surprising, but she had hoped to have a little more time before they'd come after her and her Zerg. Right now, diplomacy would have been the best answer, but it was clear this commander didn't feel like negotiating. Kerrigan knew a fanatic when she saw one. If the Protoss weren't even going to try to forgive her, then there's nothing she could do. Seemed like the only option now was to silence them and hope Jim would understand.


	27. Chapter 27

**Primary Hive, Ice Valleys, Kaldir**

Kerrigan didn't have a moment to spare. With the Protoss now aware of her presence, she had to move fast if she was going to stop them in time. Most of the Protoss forces had retreated to the safety of their defensive cannons, knowing full well that time was on their side. While outnumbered, they didn't need to attack the Zerg directly. The Fleet would do their hard work for them if they could hold out long enough.

The Queen quickly took inventory of her forces. Plenty of roaches and a few zerglings, but she feared it might not be enough for a direct assault. She'd have to make do, regardless. Time was too short to spawn more.

"Izsha, can you say anything about the size of their forces?"

"It is almost certainly small, or else we would have seen it sooner. While it is impossible to determine the exact size and composition of their forces with the weather interference, I can say with a high degree of accuracy that the Protoss forces are amassed around three psi-link spires. All of them bear the markings of the Auriga tribe." Three bases was good. Whatever forces they had would be divided between them. Attacking their bases one by one would yield a good chance of victory.

"What does their tribe have to do with anything?" Kerrigan wondered.

"The Auriga are mariners, Mistress. A scouting fleet will likely have a relatively limited ground force at their disposal. Expect zealot and stalker class units with possibly some medium-grade mech support."

"If they are mariners, then they'll have ships, right?"

"Yes, but the weather is extreme, especially in the upper atmosphere. The Protoss vessels cannot properly maneuver there. Even our overlords have trouble staying afloat. It is likely that whatever ships they have are now grounded on the planet surface."

While Kerrigan was talking with her adjutant, her forces had already reached the outskirts of the nearest base. As expected, it was build around a massive, glowing, tower-like structure. Even if her adjutant hadn't told her, she knew it was the objective. The psychic emanations from that thing were massive. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no way in but through their defenses…

"The flash freeze has arrived."

Seconds later, the Protoss warriors reached for a device on their suits that caused a strange, orange bubble to appear around them. Kerrigan figured that that must be their method of combating the storms, when she realized that it caused the other systems of their equipment to power down. Sensing an opportunity, she ordered her forces in. As it turned out, her suspicions were correct. The Protoss had to power-down their weaponry and locomotion devices to feed their shields and were, literally, powerless to prevent the Zerg from slipping by. The Zerg went immediately after the pylons keeping the base structures online. Without the support from their cannons or the ability to call in reinforcements through their gateways, the Protoss warriors were unable to stop the invaders. After the storm had faded, they fought with focused rage and great skill in an attempt to even the odds, but were no match for the sheer numbers and ferocity of the Swarm. The Zerg roared in triumph as the first of the spires fell to the ground.

After licking their wounds and waiting for a freshly hatched batch of roaches, the Swarm moved on to their next objective, eliminating a few stray patrols along the way. This was going surprisingly easy. The second base was hardly bigger than the first, leading Kerrigan to suspect that the majority of their army would be gathered around the third spire. While she had the numbers to overrun this base with ease, she decided to wait for the next flash freeze storm to minimize losses.

The storm of ice returned, followed by a storm of claws, acid, and bullets. While Protoss shielding does fine against the former, it is near useless against the latter. Like their comrades, the Protoss fell by the dozen, ripped to shreds, shot, or dissolved under a wave of acid saliva. The few stalkers that survived the initial assault tried to blink up the cliff edges to get a better firing position and were shot in the head for their troubles. While their teleportation allowed them to easily out-maneuver most of the Zerg, they were still too slow to outrun bullets, especially those fired by a ghost.

The third spire, however, would not fall so easily. As Kerrigan predicted, most of the Protoss forces had amassed around the final objective. Logical when you think about it: if they failed here, they'd be as good as dead: trapped, with no reinforcements in sight.

"Izsha, how long till the next storm?"

"Too long, mistress. The Protoss will have sent their message by then. Recommend you attack immediately."

"Great…Those mechs, what are they?" Kerrigan asked, referring to the two golden, four-legged warmachines that seemed to be the centerpiece of the Protoss defense.

"Immortals. Tricked out dragoons. Very nasty, if you're too slow to dodge their weapons. I'd keep your distance and let us take the punishment from them." Cain presented some sort of grenade to her, one that looked like a shrunken baneling. "They got some sort of shield that can absorb most of your fire. Doesn't do much good against this puppy, though."

"You want to meet them head-on? Isn't that a little…insane?"

"Probably, but it beats getting glassed by their fleet. Besides, those immortals are their elders too. Killing them will not be good for the Protoss' morale."

"Or it could really piss them off…" Kerrigan stated, dryly.

"Good. Pissed-off people make poor judgments. Gives us an even better shot at stopping them." Kerrigan had always feared the Protoss. Their technology and psionics were light-years ahead of anything humanity had, at least as far as she could remember. Admittedly a lot has changed in four years, but still. Her underling probably knew more about them than she did. If he was fine with his plan, she didn't doubt him.

"Suppose I can't argue with that. Lead on, we're running out of time." Let him have his grenades, Kerrigan thought. She might have a more effective weapon in her hands. Literally.

As soon as the Zerg were within visual range, the Protoss forces burst into activity. The two immortals were shouting telepathic encouragements and orders to their younger and less courageous (or suicidal, if Tai was to be believed) brethren, trying desperately to prevent them from panicking. Strange, the queen thought, Protoss were supposed to be braver than this. Then again, they had their backs to the wall. That, in combination with the fact that the other two bases were reduced to rubble in minutes, does not inspire confidence. If they were on their last legs, a small push might be all that was necessary to send them running, allowing Kerrigan to knock their pretty little spire down. They were still mariners first and soldiers second, after all.

The Protoss organized in their forces in a text-book defensive position: zealots first to hold the enemy back, everything else behind them to pummel the enemy into submission. The Zerg had brought banelings, however, and the zealot line quickly faltered. Zerglings swarmed all around them, turning the battlefield into a free-for-all mosh pit. With the smaller Zerg occupying the warriors, the roaches could fire into the crown largely unmolested. The only places that could hold back the tide were the two hills the immortals were standing on. Their presence alone made their comrades maintain their composure, and the devastating firepower of their phase disruptors tore apart anything that dared to come close, threatening to stop the Zerg dead in their tracks. Kerrigan did not like the thought of that. She aimed her hand in one of the immortals' direction and felt a small projectile shoot out of her arm. After a few seconds, the target started jerking around before stopping altogether. Then, to the horror of the Protoss nearby, the broodlings crawled out of the machine and started gnawing and biting at anything that moved. For some reason, she found the 'look' on their faces extremely amusing. The former Queen of Blades was about to give the other immortal the same treatment when half of it exploded in a cloud of acid and ancient Protoss curses. Cain leapt onto what was left of the machine, tore it open, and proceeded to beat the old warriors skull against the side of his walker. The other warriors were overrun soon after and the spire toppled. What remained of the Protoss force either retreated through the few remaining gates or remained behind to make sure the Zerg couldn't get through. Minutes after the spire's fall, it was over.

"Looks like that's the last of them. Izsha, how much time did we have left?"

"You don't want to know…" The adjutant replied with mixed relief. "However, the Protoss survivors have retreated to a secondary base on the other side of the mountain range. Judging by the energy signatures, they are powering up space ships in an attempt to flee."

"Can we intercept them by land?"

"Negative, Mistress."

"Then get the leviathan to deal with them. No one leaves here alive, Izsha. If any of them get through…"

"I understand. Deploying ship-to-ship weaponry. Incoming fighter group. We are engaging." Izsha fell back into a robotic monotone and started to direct the leviathan. Kerrigan was content with observing the battle through her mind's eye. There wasn't much she could do from the surface anyway. She took a piece of cloth from one of the dead Protoss and started to wipe some of the blood and gore of her face. It didn't help much, but it was better than nothing.

Overhead, the leviathan spawned a multitude of eggs out of large cavities in its sides. Seconds later, a multitude of squid-like creatures hatched out of them and began to make their way to the Protoss fighter craft. Abathur identified them as corruptors and said he managed to recreate them from some of the gene samples within Na'fash's hive. Heavily armored, they shrugged off the rapid, but weak attacks from the Protoss phoenix fighter craft with ease.

Kerrigan walked away from the ruined base. Above all, she was worried about Jim. Had he told the Protoss to go after her? No, he wouldn't. She was almost certain he loved her. If not, did he fail? If the entire Protoss military was out for her blood, it would only be a matter of time till they caught up with her. She wouldn't be able to hide forever from the entire armada. Then again, all the Protoss here were from the same tribe: the Auriga. It could be that they've gone rogue. Either way, she couldn't stay on this moon long, even if she managed to prevent the Protoss from escaping now. When they'd stop sending reports, someone would come looking for them soon enough.

With the escorts gone, the Protoss transport ships were easy pickings. The corruptors sprayed their victims with a bile-like substance, weakening armor and causing the psi-field generators to malfunction. Before the vessels even left the upper atmosphere of Kaldir, their wrecks fell back to the surface, riddles with parasite spores aimed specifically at the weak points in their armor.

As she watched the battle overhead, the Queen wondered if she was doing the right thing. Dozens, if not hundreds of sentient beings died today because she wanted to live. How many more would have to die just so that she and her Zerg wouldn't have to. The many excuses she made started to ring hollow. Then again, _they_ came after _her_. She offered them the opportunity to talk it over, and they wouldn't listen. By killing them, she was essentially purging the Protoss species of the stupid gene. Still, not many people outside the Zerg Swarm would probably see it that way.

After a few more waves bit the dust, the Protoss sent the last of their forces, led by a carrier no less. A carrier that was crippled by a single bioplasmid shot, courtesy of the leviathan, before being torn to shreds by a flurry of tentacles. With the main Zerg force occupied, the transports tried to slip by. The Zerg weren't fooled so easily. A small batch of corruptors broke off from the main group and promptly intercepted them, reducing them to wrecks. The rest of the fighters tried desperately to evade the Swarm but could not evade the storm of projectiles coming their way forever. Eventually, the last vessel was destroyed and the planet fell silent. Confident in their victory, the Leviathan let out a noiseless roar.

Looking back at her decision making the past few days, Kerrigan began to realize that she seemed to adjust frighteningly well to her new life as queen of the Swarm. While humans are known for their ability to adjust to almost anything, she pondered if this was, in her case, healthy. She had gotten used to the smell of a Zerg hive and the squishing underneath her boots, to the point where it felt almost homely to her. Well, homely might be an overstatement, but she didn't feel that grossed out by the Zerg anymore. Then again, she had no one to compare her experiences to. Kerrigan was probably the only human (assuming she could still consider herself as such) that has ever spent so much time living among the Zerg without getting eaten. Maybe she was just going native…

Tiberias and Larry showed up, anxious to talk to her.

"Well, where have you two been?"

"Making ourselves useful, my lady. Gotta earn our pay, after all. Anyway, we found one of Na'fash's secondary hives. There's something I'd think you'd want to see…"


	28. Chapter 28

**Ice Valleys, Kaldir**

"So, what's so important?" Kerrigan asked. She didn't like the idea of walking all this way for nothing.

"Well, my lady," Tai explained. "I've got good news and bad news. We found a nydus worm nearby."

"A what now?"

"A nydus worm. It's like the Zerg equivalent of a subway. Fast, painless, near instantaneous transportation across large distances. Very useful."

"If that's so useful, why doesn't the primary hive have one?"

"What we thought was the primary hive isn't actually the primary hive. Turns out, Na'fash kept most of her forces underground, including most of her hives. That's what's on the other side of the nydus worm. We didn't see them because they are several kilometers down. Normally, the pressure and heat should have killed everything down there, but it looks like our late broodmother found a way around that."

The Queen was intrigued. "I don't suppose those underground caverns could act as bomb shelters against our enemies, could they…"

"Well, they do, more or less. They would be safe from anything the Terrans could throw at them unless they find a way to blow up a whole planet. Even the old Apocalypse missiles wouldn't reach that deep. The Protoss could theoretically get there with the purification beams mounted on super-carriers, assuming, of course, that they can find it. Even then, the amount of resources needed for something like that would be ridiculous."

"A cave large enough to house an entire hive cluster should have been picked up by anyone doing a proper seismic scan. The Protoss have been around for centuries – they probably have a detailed map of every cave and hiding place in the sector."

"I'm pretty sure these aren't on them. Natural caves aren't this nice and spherical, or bristling with Zerg. Na'fash definitely made them herself."

The queen was flabbergasted. "You found underground _bio-domes_? That deep? I didn't think that was possible."

"That makes two of us. Then again, we Zerg do like to make fools of people who use words like 'impossible'."

Kerrigan's head was spinning. Bio-domes were common throughout the Koprulu sector, even underground ones on particularly inhospitable worlds, but not on this scale and never this deep. The fact that Na'fash was able to accomplish such a feat of engineering was incredible. A monument to her ambition, one that Kerrigan would put to good use. However, what really spun the Queen's mind was the fact that a Zerg would even consider a solution like this. 'Invention' or 'engineering' weren't part of the Swarm's general problem solving methods. It seemed more like something a human or half-human like herself, and maybe Tiberias or Izsha, would come up with. Then again, Za'gara did mention that broodmothers were based on a human template, so human thinking might not be beyond them. Still, it did worry her greatly. Who knows what the other broodmothers would have come up with by the time she found them?

"You mentioned bad news too, didn't you? Let me guess…the Zerg down there aren't friendly."

"Unfortunately, yes, my lady." Cain answered. "Seems like Na'fash tried creating her own broodmother wannabes and succeeded, to an extent. When I arrived, the place was in the middle of a civil war and I didn't have the psychic juice to end it. I was hoping you'd be more…persuasive."

The trio arrived at the secondary hive. It was a small base with some minor defenses and a large mass tucked away in the mountainside. Without much ceremony, Tai climbed up the massive creature towards what looked like a hole of some sorts.

Kerrigan cursed under her breath. She knew she wasn't going to like this form of transportation. "So, how does this nydus worm work?"

"Peristalsis, my lady. Climb down the hole, hold on to your gun really tight, and try not to think about the fact that your being pushed through a giant worm's digestive tract. Coming to think of it, I probably shouldn't have said that last part, should I?"

"No, you really shouldn't. I don't suppose there is a first-class, non-disgusting method down, right?"

"Unfortunately, no. Look at the bright side, though. It'll only last a few seconds…" Tai's attempt at a smile did nothing to make her feel better about this. He would have made a terrible salesman. Still, there's no other way down, so Kerrigan didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Down the rabbit hole it was…

**Subterranean Bio-Domes, Kaldir**

With an unceremonious 'splat', Kerrigan landed on the relatively soft bed of creep that covered the surface around the worm's head. The Zerg that followed her landed more gracefully and immediately took up positions. With an agitated groan, she forced herself up and checked her equipment. Thankfully, she didn't lose any on the way down, though that might have had something to do with the fact that she held on to them as if her life depended on it. Tai was right about one thing: nydus worms were fast. The whole trip lasted only a few minutes.

She looked around and was quite impressed by what she saw: a huge, spherical, and self-sufficient organic shell, reinforced with thick, bone-like rings and dimly lit by bioluminescent organs on the walls. She couldn't help but marvel at it. Finally snapping herself out of her reverie, Kerrigan opened her mind and tried to find her bearings. The Zerg that stayed behind on the surface felt a little feint, indicating that they were at least four or five kilometers down. It was gob-smacking that the conditions this deep hadn't crushed or cooked her already. Her amazement at the construct they were in quickly faded when the voices of the feral Zerg began to fill her mind. The denizens of this place were in absolute chaos. The many domes were divided amongst the queens that now ruled the place. Each coveted the hives and warriors of the others and would stop at nothing to get them; declaring all-out war on some, forming temporary alliances with others only to betray each other again later. Given the self-sufficient nature of the domes and the fact that none of them were powerful enough to unite the entirety of the brood, this war would probably go on forever if she didn't stop it. A small-scale portrayal of the current state of the Swarm. The constant chattering and screaming and fighting made Kerrigan's head feel like it was about to burst. She wanted to yell at them, to get them to just stop fighting each other and listen, but the more rational part of her mind stopped her. If she made herself known, it _would_ unite the rogue queens: they would find a common foe in the outsiders and turn on her. No, she could use this situation to her advantage. Kerrigan decided to handle this like a true chess-master. Now, which piece to move first…

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

Arcturus Mengsk read through yet another report, trying to drain every last shred of intel he could out of them. He had made the mistake of entrusting Kerrigan's death to others one too many times. Judging by what his agents in the Moebius Foundation told him, she was in the process of reuniting the Swarm and probably managed to free Raynor in the process. Admittedly, no one knew what Raynor was up to, or if he's even alive, but Mengsk knew better than to assume that he's dead. The rebel commander had often used Zerg infested planets as hiding places and knew more about fighting the Swarm than anyone in the sector. If there's anyone in the universe who could survive a full-scale Zerg invasion, it would be him. However, Raynor seemed like a small problem compared to the danger a reunited Swarm would pose. The Dominion was powerful, but the emperor knew full well that it was far from invincible, especially now. If they recovered quickly enough, the Zerg could make use of that vulnerability. Judging by Nova Terra's testimony, Kerrigan was both willing and, in time, capable of doing just that. Mengsk knew that he had to take the initiative if he and his empire were to see the end of the decade. Valerian and the forces he had 'borrowed' for the task might get the job done in time, but the emperor knew that if he beat his son to it, the glory would be his. That, combined with a healthy dose of paranoia courtesy of the Dominion's propaganda machine, would keep the population in line and undo most of the damage Raynor's campaign had done to Arcturus' reputation. Keeping his son in check wasn't even that difficult: he had agents in Valerian's organization that would keep him occupied of their movements. Some would call that underhanded; Arcturus simply felt he had a right to keep tabs on a taskforce that was, ultimately, his.

A door opened, followed by the heavy footsteps of a man in CMC power armor. Mengsk's solution to the Zerg problem had arrived: Jack Morrigan. According to his file, he was a man in his thirties, recently promoted to general to fill the void left by Warfield's defection. Also, he had a brilliant strategic mind, was well-motivated and loyal, as well as blessed with a hatred for Zerg bordering on the edge of insanity. Files, however, rarely give a complete picture of a man.

His face was badly scarred and made him look twice his actual age. His clean-shaven head and stoic expression contrasted with the barely-contained rage that burned in his eyes. Even his stance was intimidating. While he wasn't very tall, the determination present in every step made the emperor feel uneasy. Morrigan seemed like the kind of person mothers would use as the villain in a cautionary tale for their children. His service record didn't help either. Morrigan served under General Warfield during the Torus campaign as a captain and quickly got the reputation as the kind of man who'd burn entire villages at the smallest sign of Zerg infestation and who'd interpret 'keep a low profile and don't get caught' as 'nuke everything so there's no one left to catch you'. The only reason he wasn't fired was because he always got the job done, one way or another. When he plowed through a hive, the Zerg would be gone forever. As distasteful and extreme as his methods were, Jack Morrigan's forces managed to burn out every Zerg infestation they came across no matter the odds, but the cost was always tremendous, both to his troops and any civilians unlucky enough to be in his path. In spite of his successes, Warfield couldn't tolerate him anymore and promoted him away to some dead-end desk job, far away from the front, saying that he'd 'rather have the Queen of Blades over for dinner than spend another second commanding this crazy psychopath'. Morrigan was the last man that the emperor wanted to burden with the task of defending the Dominion, but he was probably the only one that could do it right.

"You called for me, my lord?" The newly-appointed general's tone was filled with impatience, as if he had better things to do that listen to some emperor who happened to be in charge.

"Ah, General. Congratulations on your promotion! I'm sure you find your new armor…"

"Your majesty, please." Morrigan interrupted. "The Zerg grow stronger every second. We cannot afford to entertain each other with petty small-talk."

While Arcturus was quite annoyed at the general's callousness, he realized that that was exactly the reason he promoted him in the first place. "Ever the Spartan, I see. Very well then. I'm sure you have heard of the Queen of Blades' escape…"

"As has every officer in the military by now…"

"…and I want you to find her." Mengsk continued. "Find her and kill her. You will take command of the fifth fleet and use whatever means you deem necessary to accomplish your mission. Any resource you require will be made available. I will deal with the political fallout, just get the job done."

"As you wish. Do we have any intel as to where she is now?"

"Everything you need will be uploaded to your flagship, general. Just one thing; When you find Kerrigan, try to keep her body intact. I'd like proof of her demise."

"If there's anything left of her, I'll try to bring it to you, but don't expect me to hold anything back. Prince Valerian thought he defeated her and she managed to escape. I won't make that same mistake."

Arcturus sighed and was beginning to understand why Warfield disliked him so much. "Very well. You are dismissed." The general bowed and left the room. Mengsk was confident that the Zerg problem would be dealt with in time. His only worry was what would happen if he found Zerg near a colonized world. The emperor made a note to keep close track of the general's actions.

_A/N 25,000 hits! That's got to be a milestone. If nothing else, it's a great Christmas present. Thanks to all the readers and reviewers for putting up with me for the past few months. You guys are awesome! So, here's my Christmas present to you: another update. Okay, nothing special, but hey._

_Merry Christmas, folks!_


	29. Chapter 29

**Bucephalus, High Orbit over Char**

Valerian felt somewhat out of place in his flagship's laboratory. He was an archeologist at heart and felt more at ease in an ancient ruin than he did here. The fact that the other researchers were out having lunch didn't help either. Being alone did give the crown prince the opportunity of looking through all this data unmolested. It would be some time before the scouts would return with any news on the Zerg, so he didn't have anything better to do anyway. The lab was stuffed to the brim with samples and equipment confiscated from the Raiders. The sheer volume of it all was staggering. In four years, the Raiders had caught up and, in some ways, even passed the Dominion by technologically. The fact that a small group of rebels could outdo a sector-wide empire in anything was, to say the least, impressive. The technologies here would help tremendously when the inevitable Zerg counter-attack would arrive. Time was not on their side, and humanity would need every edge it could find if it was to survive. Knowledge is power, which made some of these mysteries all the more infuriating.

Valerian's current conundrum was a strange Protoss device that used to stand on a pillar-shaped table in the Hyperion's lab. Unlike most of the other devices there, this one was almost completely untouched. The Raiders had no qualms pulling apart the other things they had come across. Why would they be so reluctant to learn more about this one? It certainly had its fair share of secrets: when one of Mengsk's staff touched it, he froze where he stood and had to be pushed away. The man had no physical trauma, at least none they could detect, but they weren't sure if the same could be said about his mind. He claimed that he was looking through the eyes of another, a Protoss of all things, and that it seemed like he was reliving memories that weren't his own. He seemed more or less fine, but Valerian ordered him quarantined and examined by Nova and a psychologist as a precaution. He didn't like imprisoning people, but just letting him go until he knew what happened to the man was too dangerous. Hoping to find some answers, Valerian scrolled through the notes of the Hyperion's head scientist, a man named Egon Stetmann. He used to be a scientist working on some sort of shielding technology for an ill-fated Dominion supersoldier program until he found his moral compass and sabotaged his own research, destroying the facility he worked in. While he caused a lot of damage, Valerian couldn't help but admire him for having the guts to do what he thought was right. Even if his courage didn't earn the crown prince's respect, his acumen certainly did. If the Hyperion's logs are to be believed, Stetmann was single-handedly responsible for many of the brilliant pieces of engineering the Raiders had at their disposal. The Dominion lost one of their finest minds when they couldn't ensure Stetmann's loyalty. Valerian regretted not having him in the Moebius Foundation. A man like that could do so much with near limitless funding and resources.

Looking through the notes, the crown prince eventually came across a series called 'Ihan Memory Crystal'. Believing that this might shed some light on the mysterious Protoss device, he opened the oldest note and started reading:

'Today, Commander Raynor brought another Protoss device to the lab. I was about to get my equipment when he stopped me, looked me in the eye, and _ordered_ me not to touch it. As in officer-to-soldier kind of order! I've worked for Raynor and his crew for about three yonks now, and not once has he actually ordered me to do anything. Whatever that thing was, it's either really good, or really bad. To satisfy my curiosity (and probably stop me from opening it up anyway when he's gone) Raynor explained to me and Dr. Hanson that it was an 'Ihan Memory Crystal', a device that would allow you to 'relive' another person's memory. Apparently a fellow named 'Zeratul' wanted to tell him something extremely important with it. I thought the method was rather over-complicated. It seemed much simpler to just send a message over the comms. Raynor agreed, but said that you can't lie when you're using one of these things. With an Ihan crystal, you get the complete picture without bias or misinterpretation. The message must have been extremely important. The kind that could cost lives if any part of it was misunderstood or ignored in any way. If it is some sort of data storage device, I can imagine that it is very delicate. If I did pull it apart, I might end up destroying part of the message. Anyway, I asked some of the older Raiders, the ones who already served during the Brood War, who Zeratul was and they looked at me as if I asked them if water was wet. Apparently Zeratul is a big-shot Protoss hero of some kind, someone who Raynor respects more than anyone. Suffice it to say that Raynor is a better judge of character than I am. If someone is worthy of his respect, he'd be worthy of mine as well. For the time being, I will suppress my curiosity and work on these Zerg samples.'

Valerian had heard of this Zeratul before. He had fought four years ago in the Great War and the Brood War that followed it, only to vanish afterwards. Whatever he had found, it must have been of great importance for him to risk seeking out the Hyperion. Without much further thought, the crown prince opened the second entry:

'Commander Raynor will probably skin me alive if he reads this, but I could not contain my curiosity. I know, it's wrong, but I'm a scientist, for goodness' sake! His orders forbade me to open the memory crystal up, but it said nothing about visual inspection, or using the scanner. Still, I doubt Raynor will appreciate the fact that I obeyed the letter rather than the spirit of his command. Anyhow, the device appears to be a flower-like construct about the size of my hand. It seems to consist of three 'petals' made of that golden metal the Protoss use in most of their structures and machines. On each petal is a green glowing marking, possibly a logogram of some sort. My knowledge of the Protoss language is very limited, unfortunately, and I am unable to determine what these markings mean. At the center of the device is a glowing green crystal which I speculate to be the psychic transmitter of the device. A hologram of an unknown object hovers above it, although I'm not sure which part of the device projects it, or what purpose it serves. The scanner came up empty: apart from some radiation commonly found in Protoss technology, there was nothing that could tell me how it works, or what information it holds. I'll have to wait until the commander decides to use the device. Maybe I can have it once he is done with it.'

While the scientist's problems were interesting, they hadn't given the prince what he needed. He moved on to the next entry.

'I've scanned the device a few times already, but came up empty every time. Dr. Hanson, who is as curious about the memory crystal as I am, advised me to leave it be regardless, explaining, in a soft, motherly voice, that the commander will have my head if something happens to it. She's real scary when she does that. Anyway, I was in luck. Raynor came by and decided to use it. He simply walked over to the table and muttered something to himself. The crystal core started to glow more intensely and the commander froze in place. He stayed like this for hours, completely catatonic and unresponsive to any stimulus whatsoever. I tried getting his attention by making abrupt movements in front of him (which Dr. Hanson insisted on calling 'flailing about like a moron'), but to no avail. Gentle prodding him with a pen didn't do anything either. Autonomic functions appeared to be in order, however. Raynor was able to stand, his muscles seemingly fine. His breathing and heart rate were normal, although they did spike every now and then as if the commander was performing intermitted bursts of physical activity. I theorize that the device shuts down conscious brain activity and any reflexes that might result in movement, thus facilitating the transfer of information from the crystal to the commander's mind. I wanted to test that hypothesis by exposing Raynor to a sharp object (laboratory-grade scalpel) to see if his pain-response reflex arcs were disabled as well, but decided against it. While the commander would suffer little to no physical harm, I doubt the same could be said for me if he finds out I tried to stab him with a knife in the name of science. A few hours later, Raynor 'unfroze', muttered something about needing a drink, and left without saying anything to either of us. Whatever was on that crystal, it must have been quite shocking. When he returned about an hour (and a few drinks, judging by the smell of his breath) later, the only thing he wanted to talk about was our research. We asked him about what he saw, he said he wasn't sure yet, that he had only seen a part of the message. Dr. Hanson expressed her worries, but Raynor claimed it was important and he had to see it. I cannot help but wonder what was worth frying your cortex over, but I'm not the man to doubt the commander's decisions. He knows what he is doing. I hope.'

What Valerian just read was eerily similar to the experiences of the affected staff member. If nothing else, it meant that whatever he did, the man used the device the way it was meant to. The prince still didn't know what was on that device. He hoped the last entry would.

'Today had been the fourth time Commander Raynor used that crystal. Each time, he left, more exhausted and more worried than the last time. While some physical fatigue is to be expected (he stood in the same spot for hours at a time), the degree of exhaustion tells me that it's more than what it appears. Dr. Hanson said that, physically, he was fine and that the 'side effects' from using the crystal would go away with a healthy meal and a good night's sleep. The commander still hasn't shared the full details of what he had seen with us, claiming that there was too much at stake, but I'm not an idiot. I saw him in the cantina the other night, brooding. Swan says he's just thinking about Kerrigan, his girlfriend that he lost to the Zerg, but I honestly doubt that. I know what it's like to know a terrible secret, but to be unable to tell anyone about it. My research for the Dominion on Tyrador still makes hard to sleep some nights. Whatever was on that crystal, it has both my commander and a high-up Protoss running scared. Too scared to let us grunts know about it. It must have been something crucial, not just to them, but to everyone. I feel I need to know what he saw, but I can't muster the courage to ask him. I don't want to ask someone else to do it in my place; that could start all sorts of rumors. Do I even want to know what's on the crystal? Honestly, I don't know what to do. Should I take a look at the crystal myself? Demand he tell me what's on it after I've had a few Mai Tai's? No, I probably should let it rest. Raynor isn't the Dominion military. I've always trusted him; if he doesn't tell us, I'm sure he has a good reason.'

That was the last of the entries. Valerian still didn't know what was on the memory crystal. Whatever it was, he needed that information. He had to find out, no matter the risks. What could a Protoss possibly have to say to a rebel? What is so important that you would need this ridiculously overcomplicated method to pass it along?

There was only one way to find out. Valerian knew he would regret this, but he felt there was no other way. The crown prince took the crystal to his office, locked the door, and ordered that he would not be disturbed by anyone.


	30. Chapter 30

**Hyperion, High Orbit over D-3974, A.K.A Dead Man's Rock**

Dead Man's Rock. Off all the places Raynor had visited in his life, this was one of the least pleasant. While the planet itself was quite hospitable, the population was not. Being too far from the core worlds for the Dominion to properly police, the world had become a haven for all sorts of unsavory individuals. Exactly the kind of lawless backwater that would appeal to someone trying to get lost. The Raiders, however, weren't here to hide. The same mercenaries and pirates that made the place so dangerous were also a valuable resource that could be exploited by anyone with the credits to do so.

In their case, they were here for an old friend: 'Colonel' Orlan, former confederate military officer and one of the finest decryption experts in the sector. The man you needed if you wanted to read someone encoded mail without all the questions asked. The communiqué's from the Moebius facility on Char were heavily encrypted; although the techs could figure out that they were sent to Umoja, they couldn't figure out what was in the messages. Raynor didn't want to go anywhere near the Protectorate if he could avoid it. The Umojans were one of the few factions not openly hostile to the Raiders, a situation the commander didn't want to change without a good reason. If their government was somehow involved with the creation of these hybrids, conflict might be unavoidable, but until he knew for certain, he couldn't afford to jump to conclusions just yet. For all the commander knew, the messages' destination could just be a relay to somewhere else, or a diversion left by the Dominion. Orlan should be able to tell.

Unfortunately, Orlan had tried to betray the Raiders before, attempting to sell the adjutant containing information of the Tarsonis debacle to the Dominion. Raynor did not take kindly to that and had him locked up. He was now a 'guest' of Mira Han, cutthroat mercenary and the lovely wife of Matt Horner, whose forces helped the Raiders defeat Orlan's army. Inevitably, she would have used Orlan for her own ends. A decryption expert of his caliber was a rare and valuable resource and getting Mira to hand over her golden goose would probably involve a small fortune and a lot of ass-kissing.

The adjutant's monotone voice alerted the bridge officers that a connection with Han had been established. After a few moments of static, the image of the mercenary leader came into view. While many mercenaries had their eccentricities, this one looked like she stepped on a landmine in a paint shop. Her appearance made her, to put it mildly, somewhat unapproachable, but Raynor had dealt with enough unusual individuals to be put off by that. Warfield and Horner were less enthusiastic, however: Warfield because he disliked the use of mercenaries and criminals even though he understood their practical necessity, and Horner because of his 'unique' relationship with Mira.

"James, always a pleasure." She said with a thick accent. "And who is this? My, my, _the_ General Warfied. The man who killed a hydralisk with his bare hands. I don't suppose this is the part where you tell me I'm under arrest, is it?

"Mira, if he was still working for the Dominion, I'd be in handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit." The commander answered.

"Oh, that would be terrible. Fluorescent orange doesn't fit with the 'heroic scoundrel' look you seem to be going for. Anyway, good to see that some of the rumors are actually true. What can I do for you?" Raynor could see the general cringe at the word 'rumors'. While Warfield would vocally disagree with anyone who'd say it out loud, the general was, essentially, a traitor, and not exactly proud of that fact. He'd probably get used to it. Raynor certainly has.

"Just wondering if you still have Colonel Orlan around."

"Why, of course I do. He's been very productive lately. I suppose you want to hire him, don't you?"

"That I do. We have some things that need decrypting and I'd like to borrow our mutual friend for them. If you don't mind, I want to take him aboard my ship so he doesn't try anything funny. How many credits is this gonna cost me?"

"Hmm, credits don't do well in the current market. How about you pay me the same thing you did last time? I think that's a fair deal."

"A big pile of minerals for a decryption job? That's rather pricy." Raynor was slightly disappointed at her terms, but there was little he could do.

Han laughed. "Well, I'd be a very poor mercenary if I didn't rip you off, now would I? Consider the high price hazard pay for working with a former Dominion officer. Besides, I always come through in the end, don't I?"

"Alright, you got a deal, Mira. It might take us a while to get the goods, though."

"That's alright, James. I'm in no hurry, and I don't see Orlan going anywhere. It's a pleasure working with you and… speaking of Matthew, is he around? He still hasn't answered any of my calls."

"He's…" Captain Horner expression turned into a look that said 'oh god, oh god, don't tell her I'm here'. "…unavailable."

"A pity. I'd think a romantic candle-light dinner with my dear husband would be in appropriate. It's been _so_ long… Anyway, I'll see you soon." The screen returned to static and the mercenary leader was, mercifully, gone.

After everyone had time to exhale, Warfield spoke up. "What was the deal you made last time?"

"I hired the colonel to decrypt an old Confederate adjutant for me. He double-crossed me and hired Han to keep me of his back. I bribed her with a big supply of minerals and had her capture both him and the adjutant."

"What could possibly be on that adjutant that is worth getting on your bad side over?" The general asked with some surprise.

"Remember that little broadcast UNN made that exposed Mengsk as a mass murderer? _That's_ what was on the adjutant. Anyway, I'll take some men down to the surface and gather what we need. You should stay on the ship; the locals don't take too kindly to Dominion forces."

"I don't think they'll take too kindly to you either if you start a mining operation on their turf. If would be like stealing someone's car and selling it back to them."

"Han didn't care last time, and I can handle the few mercenaries who do. We'll be fine, general. We'll get Orlan soon enough."

With that, Raynor left for the armory. General Warfield turned to the captain and shot him an inquisitive glance. Horner, feeling really uncomfortable by the events of the last few minutes, responded, defensively: "Look, I won her hand in a card game. If I had known what I was playing for, I would never have joined in."

The general maintained his glare for a few minutes before laughing. Matt Horner sighed. He'd never hear the end of this.

**Dominion Battlecruiser White Star, Dylarian Shipyards**

Captain Marc Williams was looking over the dockyards as they floated past. His ship, christened the White Star a few weeks ago, still smelt of fresh paint. Still, the captain was not as happy as one would expect. They were about to embark on an inevitably dangerous search-and-destroy mission to wipe out the Zerg once and for all. While he was a man of action and had a massive fleet to support him, this particular assignment left the captain uneasy. Morale was low, in spite of his best efforts, and there were doubts among both the crew and the other captains in the fleet. Some wondered if the annihilation of the Zerg was even possible, or what the cost would be. Admittedly, the Zerg base of operations, Char, was now in the hands of the Dominion, but the fleet that attacked it was all but decimated. Rumor had it that they would have lost too, if it weren't for the help of none other than Jim Raynor himself. Lies, of course, said UNN. The appalling losses were real, but, according to the reports he had been given, the Raiders weren't even involved in the invasion. Williams knew better than to trust the Dominion intelligence services blindly, but it seemed very unlike a someone like Raynor would join their worst enemy, even to defeat a greater evil. It seemed even less likely that the Dominion would accept the help even if it was offered. Regardless, the rumors didn't die down.

Their new commander didn't help either. Williams had heard that he was a bit odd, but that wouldn't even begin to describe the man. General Morrigan, by the captain's assessment, should have been sent to a mental hospital years ago. He was single-minded in his quest to obliterate the Zerg, and, judging by what little the man's profile told him, ruthlessly effective at it too. He got results, but often at a great cost. His total immersion in every piece of Zerg related information went far beyond the maxim of 'know your enemy'. The instant he came onboard, the general made the vessel his flagship and ordered a full systems check. When the White Star's top-of-the-line sensor arrays were deemed insufficient, he immediately ordered the ship to go to the Dylarian Shipyards for a refit. There, he ordered countless improvements to the sensors, including several of dubious value like ground-penetrating mineral scanners. Unless the Zerg could somehow found a way to burrow more than a kilometer deep, those improvements were just a waste of resources. Speaking of resources, the good general's jury rigs required an immense amount of power to run. They had to install a secondary reactor along with several fuel tanks just to keep it all online. When Williams told him about this, the general simply stated that not every ship in a fleet has to be combat capable. While the ship was escorted by a large fleet, having a capital ship that could not stand on its own in combat was unorthodox at the least. Whether General Morrigan was a pioneer in fleet warfare or a massive idiot, the captain couldn't say. If it was the latter…

The console beeped, alerting Williams about one of the many planets the general wanted him to keep tabs on. This was another thing that annoyed him: Morrigan had a nasty habit of ordering him to watch for seemingly random things that seemed to have no direct connection to the Zerg, like various pirate and mercenary groups, wildlife numbers, and reputable research groups. Before Williams could ask why, the general answered: 'Just do it.' Even the reapers had better social skills than he did. The pointless catch of the day was a sighting of Raynor's Raiders around D-3974. Of all the people they were looking at, surely the Raiders were the last group they should be hunting. Pirates or no, they were probably the most efficient paramilitary organization in the sector when it came to dealing with Zerg. In the captain's mind, leaving them be would only benefit their mission.

Speaking of the devil, General Morrigan had decided it was time to grace the White Star's bridge with a visit.

"Captain, report." The general barked. Always direct, always unpleasant. One of these days, Williams was going to have to teach him some manners.

"Just a sighting of Raynor's Raiders at D-3974, also known as Dead Man's Rock. Nothing out of the ordinary, it's a place frequented by pirates. Sir, if I may ask, why do you care about the Raiders? Our mission is to hunt Zerg."

The general bowed his head and sighed. "What I'm about to tell you is strictly classified. Word of this will _not_ leave this ship. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. I have reason to believe the Raiders are working with or for the Queen of Blades."

Upon hearing that, Williams had to fight the urge to burst into laughter. There was no way that was possible. Scuttlebutt had it that Raynor and the human that is now the Queen of Blades once had a relationship, but that died along with Sarah Kerrigan's humanity. He entertained the thought that the general was making a very bad joke, but then he realized it was Morrigan he was thinking about.

"With all due respect, general, I don't see that happening. Like, ever. Do you have any evidence for this?" 'Or is this another one of your crackpot conspiracy theories?' Williams wanted to add.

"I do. A few weeks ago, Dominion forces apprehended Raynor and his goons and threw him in jail. The facility he was being held was attacked soon after by a Zerg army led by the Queen of Blades herself. The Hyperion was gone after the assault, along with any trace of the Raiders. Before you call me insane, I will give you the clearance to access the relevant files."

"Still, I don't understand why someone like Raynor would even want to work with the Queen of Blades. The only reason I can think of is that the Queen is somehow human again. I didn't see the official reports, but UNN mentioned that the fleet used some sort of anti-Zerg device on her. If you have a human-Zerg hybrid and you burn out the Zerg, you'd be left with a human, right?"

The general's eyes lit on fire. Williams wasn't sure if he was about to receive a dressing down, a punch to the face, or a one-way trip to the airlock. Morrigan eventually calmed himself. "Captain Williams, when the Zerg infest you, they tear out everything you once were. Trust me when I say that it is, without doubt or hyperbole, the worst fate that can be inflicted upon you. Whatever humanity an infested Terran, any infested Terran, may or may not have possessed, it is gone now. Killing them is doing them a favor. Don't let appearances or sweet talk confuse you: the Zerg are a blight on the sector that can only be removed by burning everything they have touched."

"That still doesn't explain why the Raiders would want to work with her…" The captain continued.

"It doesn't, which brings us to the reason why we're after them. Since there's no good reason for them to work for her willingly, I can only assume that the Queen of Blades must have forced them. It is my assessment that Raynor, and probably most, if not all, of his men, are enthralled to the Queen of Blades, probably infested as well. We have no choice but to hunt them down and eliminate them before they do any further harm. I wouldn't be surprised if their mission at Dead Man's Rock involved assimilating the mercenaries into the Swarm. Since the probes haven't found the main hives yet, we can use the time to stop the Raiders before they hurt anyone else."

"Sir, wouldn't it be possible that the Raiders simply disappeared in the chaos of the attack? Zerg incursions are messy affairs and they could have simply slipped away. I mean, they used to hide on planets infested by Zerg. If there's anyone who could pull it off…"

"The Raiders are good, I'll give them that, but they are not that good." The general explained. "The Zerg overran the guards in minutes. There is no way that they could have survived unless the Zerg wanted them to. Now, we've wasted enough time already. Get the fleet into formation and jump to D-3974 at all speed."

"As you wish, sir." Williams let out a defeated sigh. The general was mad, he was certain of it. Assuming the Raiders were infested based on a single, suspicious, non-violent encounter with the Zerg was, to put it mildly, paranoid to the extreme. Yet, his logic was sound, in a way. There was no reason to suspect the Queen of Blades had changed her ways, and if she hadn't, the Raiders would never willingly work alongside her. Morrigan's near religious zeal worried him, however. Burning entire cities to stop the Zerg didn't seem to be an impossibility with this man. Most of the general's file was inaccessible, so only time would tell if he was as crazy as the captain feared.


	31. Chapter 31

**Near Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock**

Raynor remembered this place, though not fondly. Deadman's Port was the sector's Mecca of dirty business ventures. Each time he visited this city, the commander swore it would be the last. Yet, fate had a nasty habit of making him go back regardless. The salvage here, for example, would be an excellent payment for Mira once reprocessed. With some luck, they might even find some nice technology hidden among the scraps.

The local mercenaries did not approve of his activities, however. Small gangs tried to stop them, but the Raiders were more than prepared for this. Having faced Zerg, Tal'darim, and the might of the Dominion more often than he could count, a few pirates were little more than a warm-up exercise for the battle-hardened men and women serving under Raynor's command. After learning who the most powerful mercenary commander of the area was, the Raiders launched an assault against the poor guy's fortress, thoroughly annihilating it and anyone who tried to defend it. The raids stopped soon afterwards, the gangs either dead or gone into hiding. In this place, authority was determined by the size of your armory, which probably made Raynor the uncrowned king of the planet. The commander was looking forward to a relatively easy mission.

**Bridge, Hyperion, Dead Man's Rock**

General Warfield felt a little useless. At Raynor's request, he had opted to stay behind on the Hyperion. The commander had more experience dealing with mercenaries than he had and there was no need to have them both on the field for a simple harvesting mission. However, it did mean that Warfield had nothing to do. He didn't feel like discovering the Hyperion's legendary cantina, so he decided to stay on the bridge and help Raynor out in any way he could. Maybe he could give some tactical advice? He was a professional soldier, after all. As it turned out, Raynor didn't need any of his wisdom. With a speed and efficiency only the finest of Dominion commanders could have matched, the rebel leader carved a path through the mercs. Warfield was impressed. The commander proved yet again that he was probably at least as capable on the battlefield as the general was, if not more so. Emperor Mengsk made a big mistake when he got on Raynor's bad side: The commander could have been a general by now.

Suddenly, a console began to beep and the tactical map turned into a representation of the space surrounding the planet. Several dots appeared on the edge of their sensor range, soon expanding into holographic images of dozens of battlecruisers. The captain's face grew pale. There was no doubt in the general's mind: the Dominion had caught up with them. Far sooner than Warfield expected them to.

Matt Horner reached for the communications console and contacted the commander. "Sir, a huge Dominion fleet just warped in. We need to get out of here, now!"

"Dammit!" Raynor responded "I thought they'd be too worried about the Zerg to care about us. Aw hell, everyone, back to the transports, double-time! General, can you talk them down?"

Warfield shook his head. "Mengsk wouldn't sent anyone after us that could be convinced by me. I can buy you some time, but don't expect anything else. If I could use the Hybrid data, I might be able to stall them a little longer."

The commander frowned. "Well, just give it your best shot. I'll take every minute you can give me. Matt, warm up the warp drives and give Warfield that data."

"Way ahead of you, sir. I'm opening a hailing channel with the lead vessel, the…White Star. You recognize it, General?" The captain asked.

"No, she must be a new vessel. Open the channel." Horner pressed a few buttons and gave Warfield the go-ahead. "Attention Dominion vessel White Star, this is General Warfield, please respond."

A few moments later, the console showed the face of the opposing fleet's commander. A face Warfield wished he wouldn't have to look at for the rest of his career.

"Morrigan. I thought I put you behind a desk after Torus."

"And I thought the Zerg killed you after Char, 'General' Warfield."

"Seemed like neither of us got what we hoped for."

"Indeed, though I am rather surprised you'd be working with Raynor's Raiders of all people. You weren't too fond of pirates, if I recall correctly."

"Then that makes two of us. Turns out, they're a lot better than the man you're working for now. Has anyone told you of Tarsonis? Are you aware Mengsk is practically responsible for the Zerg being the threat they are?"

A soft muttering could be heard on Morrigan's end. Apparently the White Star's crew didn't know the truth yet, or hadn't believed it. "I know the Emperor made a lot of mistakes, some of which are probably unforgivable. For better or for worse, he is still human. But I do know that Mengsk is a better alternative to annihilation. We both know the Zerg's intent, Warfield. They exist to assimilate what they can and destroy everything else, humanity included. Before trying to convince me I'm working for a megalomaniac, how about you tell me why the Zerg didn't kill you when they attacked your base on Char. Oh wait, don't bother. Let me guess, the Queen of Blades came to you and said she'd spare you and your men if you help her with something. That something being the artifact you used to defeat her in the first place. Or maybe she came to Raynor first, trying to convince him she wasn't evil anymore. Or maybe she mind-raped all of you into thinking she was your goddess? Whatever it was, it doesn't really matter. You escaped Char, but you didn't escape the Zerg. We both know that would have been impossible."

Warfield shook his head. Dealing with Morrigan was always a pain, especially when Zerg were the topic of the conversation. In his former subordinate's mind, things regarding the Swarm were very much black-and-white. Trying to convince him that the Zerg weren't the biggest threat to the galaxy anymore would be damn near impossible. Nevertheless, the general had to try. "You're right, the Zerg had us at their mercy and let us go. Let us go because there are far bigger threats out there than each other." He signaled to Horner, who promptly sent everything they had just discovered on the hybrids. Warfield prayed that Morrigan would be convinced.

He briefly scanned some of the files and sneered. "Warfield, what makes you think the Zerg didn't create these themselves?"

At least he was relatively calm, Warfield thought. "I'd have to get one of the scientists to explain the details, but apparently the method used to create these things are well beyond the Zerg's abilities. Before you ask, we verified this ourselves. I'd stake my reputation that the Zerg did not make these things."

"You know, people have said that the Swarm would be mindless without the Queen of Blades in control, and thus there was no need to kill her right away. I told them that they couldn't take that chance, that there might be back-up controlling organisms that could free her and that they should take her out while they still could. No one believed me, and now the Zerg have their Queen again. I have been warning the Dominion for years that the Zerg might employ biological warfare and might find a way to infest people with air-borne viruses. Everyone said that it was 'well beyond the Zerg's abilities'. Only a few weeks ago, your friends had to burn down the Meinhoff colony, and we all know what happened on Haven!"

"Your point, Morrigan?" By now, General Warfield was gritting his teeth.

"You underestimate the Zerg, just like you always have. They are smart, ruthless, and insidious. If you think you understand them, that you can deal with them safely, you are making a big mistake. One that we all might end up paying for it. For all I know, you could be infested yourself. The virus the Zerg let loose on Argia might have infected you as well. I wouldn't be surprised if you've been corrupted already, even if you don't realize it."

Warfield could no longer contain his anger. "Oh for the love of God! Do you think we're idiots?! We've all been fighting the Zerg for years now. Everyone on board this ship has been checked in triplicate. We're not just banging bricks together here, Jack! Unless the hyper-evolutionary virus can break the laws of nature, none of us are infested. But I'm wasting my breath, am I? You won't listen to me now, you never did. Even if we surrendered and had your men look for any trace of your virus, what would you do if you can't find it? How long will you keep looking for something that _isn't there_?"

"The Zerg are too great a threat to be handled with kid's gloves. I'm not beyond reason, Warfield, but my patience is running out."

"Funny, I didn't realize it ever began…"

"Do NOT mock me, Warfield!" Morrigan retorted, enraged. "What I am doing is protect humanity from the greatest threat in our existence. What I am doing is making the choices you are too soft to make. I will not lower my guard, not for you, not for anyone."

"You want to find the greatest threat to humanity? Look in your damn mirror! How many innocents have you killed?! How many more have to die? You're worse than the Zerg could ever be. At least the Zerg don't pretend to be righteous!" Warfield bellowed.

"Are you blind? Haven't you seen with your own eyes what they are capable off? How do you live seeing children ripped apart in front of you? How can you sleep knowing that your friends, your brothers, now serve those monsters as twisted mockeries of their former selves? How can you just ignore everything you know about them? Not only are you leaving them be, you are actively trying to help them! Who is the real villain here, Warfield?" Morrigan took a pause to breathe. His tone shifted back to his usual cold, calm speech. "This is getting us nowhere. I'm sorry I have to do this. Just know that, in spite of our differences, it has been an honor serving with you."

The connection was cut. Warfield knew exactly what was to follow. "Raynor, we need to get out of here. Morrigan is nuts. He'll blow us all up in a heartbeat."

"I noticed. Dammit, we haven't even gotten back to the command center. How long do we have?" The commander asked.

"Three minutes until they get within weapon's range." Horner answered.

"Hell, that's not enough. You'll be scrap before we can take off. Matt, General, you two have to get out of here. Me and the boys will go underground, hold out as long as we can."

Horner got an unshakable feeling of déjà vu. "Sir, I'm not leaving you behind again. Just get back here, now!"

"We'll all be dead if you stay here. Get out and find a way to pick us up later. Get creative. We'll try to get a transport off-world if we can. Besides, this isn't like Char four years ago. There aren't any Zerg on this planet, right? Now go, don't make me give you an order."

The general and the captain looked each other in the eye. Neither of them wanted to obey, but came to an unspoken agreement: they had no choice. After the adjutant warned them that their fleet would be in range in thirty seconds, Horner gave his orders: "All ships, we are leaving the planet. Engage warp engines and return to rendezvous point theta." Space bent around the vessels and before a single shot was fired, the Raider fleet was gone.

**Bridge, White Star, Dead Man's Rock**

"Dammit, that was the last contact." stated the sensor officer "Tracking now. They're old ships, we should be able to pick them up soon enough."

Captain Williams was too stunned to acknowledge. The implications of what he just heard… General Warfield, one of the most celebrated commanders in the Dominion, accused the Emperor of having a lot more skeletons in his closet than Williams ever wanted to know, and Morrigan had made no attempt to deny that fact. The captain was wondering if he was still fighting on the right side: Warfield was a damn hero, he wouldn't work for the Raiders without a good reason. If he was under the control of the Zerg, however…

Williams wanted to know more, but he didn't dare upset the general. For the time being, he'd let it rest. The captain turned to Morrigan and asked: "General, why didn't we jump in on top of them? They would never have been able to escape if we did. Now they know the size of our fleet and our intentions. This could come back to haunt us."

"Probably, yes. However, with their leader and many of their members stranded, the Raiders will try to get help, most likely from their Zerg 'allies'. The Queen of Blades will be forced out of hiding and we can put her down, once and for all. Send third wing to follow them once you have a location. Find out where they're going and what they're doing, but tell them not to engage unless I tell them to. Tell the rest of the fleet to take up high orbit over the planet and quarantine the planet. Be sure to do a complete scan as I instructed. We'll hunt these wretches down, wherever they are hiding."

"What about these 'hybrids', sir? Warfield seemed convinced they were important."

"Maybe they are, maybe they're just a lie to throw us off." Morrigan said. "Upload them to my quarters, but make sure no one but me reads them. I don't want anyone getting doubts, especially if this is just a diversion."

Yes, Williams would let it rest. This was all way over his head.


	32. Chapter 32

_A/N Since many of you asked about it, let me explain my view on the branched missions. When I started writing, it was my belief that Hanson and Tosh would simply be ignored in HotS since Blizzard didn't want to give anyone the idea that they picked the 'wrong' choice. Hence, I tried to make both paths equally viable by either being ambiguous or not mentioning them altogether. This may no longer be accurate since Blizzard decided to make one ending more canonical than the others, but I don't care. For the moment, I will keep it open and allow you, the reader, to decide how you wanted those side missions to end. I might change my mind on this later if I feel that one ending makes the story much better than the other, but I'll let you lot know if I do._

**Bucephalus, High Orbit over Char**

"Doc, Doc! I think he's waking up."

Crown Prince Valerian awakened with the mother of all headaches. He has had hangovers before, but this one felt like he had been the patient in experimental brain surgery involving a hammer and a piece of sand paper. Why was that again? He couldn't remember drinking, or anyone giving him a whack…wait, the Ihan crystal. That's why.

"Don't move, your highness. You're suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration. I don't know what you did, but whatever it was, you're in no shape to move today." The ship's chief doctor was a stern, old man, but also a very capable physician who had treated the crown prince for years. Why would he be worried so much? In Valerian's mind, 'reading' the crystal only took a couple of hours. Why did it drain him so much?

"How long was I gone? It's only been a few hours, right?"

"If by few, you mean more than forty-eight, then yes, just a few." The doctor replied. "Now shut up, stay in bed, and whatever you did, don't do it again. You had us all worried sick."

"Didn't I leave specific orders not to be disturbed?"

"Well, yes," said Nova, "but when the door spontaneously disintegrated when I happened to walked past it, I decided to take a look and found you, unconscious, on the floor. I moved you to the couch and got the doctor."

"Hmm, well thanks. Now, if you'd excuse me, I have…Arg!" Valerian's headache swelled up again when he tried to get up.

"See, and that's why you stay in bed when a doctor says you should. I'm a medical professional, you know. Sometimes following my advice is not as bad an idea as it sounds."

Not good enough for the prince. "But I have things to do, doc. People to see. I'm a rather busy man, I case you didn't realize. Can't you just give me a few pills and send me on my way?"

"Please, I'm a doctor, not a magician. Besides, you're not busy today. I had your secretary cancel your appointments. You can take the whole day of having a nice, long nap."

"On whose authority?"

"I'm the doctor."

"I'm the Crown Prince of the Terran Dominion!"

"Who happens to be my patient. Now, are you going to stay in bed like a good little boy or am I going to have to get the restraints from the Neural Resocialization Department?" Valerian realized that arguing with him was futile. The doctor always got his way in the end. "Good man. Agent…Nova, right? Could you make sure he stays there? If there's nothing else, I'll be in my office."

The doctor left, leaving the ghost and the prince alone. After a few minutes of silence, Nova slapped him on the head. "Ouch! What did I do?"

"You're an idiot, _your highness_. What were you thinking? You can't just risk your life like that! What if that damn crystal fried your brain?"

"How do you know…" She pointed at the green, glowing device on the table. "Oh, right. I need to work on my subtlety. Anyway, one of the Hyperion's scientists kept a log. Raynor used the device too, as well as one of my staff, and they turned out just fine. I see no reason why it shouldn't work for me…"

The ghost sighed. "What would your father think of this? I admire your guts, but you're going to get us all in trouble like this."

"The emperor would call me a moron and go back to ruling the empire. Did you tell him?"

"No, your highness. We wanted to wait and see if there was any permanent damage. There isn't, thankfully."

"Good. Now, would you kindly hand me that bottle of whiskey? I think I need it."

"No way, sir. If you want to cure dehydration, you're better off with a bottle of water than a bottle of scotch. Doc will kill us both if I feed you anything else." She grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and tossed it in the crown prince's lap.

He opened it and greedily emptied it. Valerian hadn't realized how thirsty he was. Sounds like the doctor was right about him being gone for the past two days. "I'd say the same thing, Nova, if it weren't for the fact that I just learned I nearly blew up the universe."

"W…what?"

"Oh, yes. I did it by trying to kill the worst mass murderess in human history. If you don't believe me, look into my head. I'm not lying, and I'm not crazy."

Nova simply stood in front of him, utterly speechless. She expected some sort of punch-line to follow, but it never came. She wondered if the prince had gone mad, but the clarity in his mind told her otherwise. Eventually, she sat down and started looking. What she found scared her even more…

Zeratul's travels across the sector, the Hybrids, the Dark Voice, but above all, the end of the world, and the fact that Kerrigan, Queen of _freakin'_ Blades was the only one who could prevent it. This couldn't be right. It had to be a mistake, or a trick, Nova thought. However, it wasn't the content of the vision that frightened the ghost, it was its familiarity. When Raynor was still imprisoned, she had often looked into his mind to see if he had made any attempt at escaping. Rather, she found thoughts and images disturbingly similar to the ones that were floating through the crown prince's mind. Nova had always assumed that Raynor was delusional or trying to trick her, but now, she could no longer be certain.

Valerian noticed the ghost's doubts and said: "In case you're wondering, I did a little digging on Ihan crystals before I used it. As owner of one of the leading human organizations researching alien technology, I assure you that making or manipulating something like that is well beyond our ability or that of any human organization in the sector. If you think it's a trap, I'd like you to remember that Zeratul probably never expected anyone but Raynor to see this, not to mention that I cannot imagine any Protoss in the universe would want to spare her. If Zeratul wants her to live, it must be for a damn good reason. I'm willing to go along with it for the time being."

"You'd…trust an alien you've never met?"

"No, I trust General Warfield, and anyone that managed to earn his respect. Raynor must have known, better than anyone else if the Brood War reports are correct, that it was unlikely Kerrigan could be saved. Yet he helped us invade Char regardless. Not to mention that he was adamant that Kerrigan had to be spared. I think he might have been right all along."

Nova felt herself shivering. Up became down, right became wrong, foe became friend. Her ghost programming told her to ignore everything. This was just another twist in her brain. Just like the memory flashes she received after her Terrazine exposure on Altara, these were nothing but unimportant distractions. They were to be ignored so that her duty to the Dominion could be fulfilled. That oppressive, commanding voice had become very small lately. She wanted to know she was doing the right thing, that she was fighting for the betterment of mankind. But she couldn't be certain. Honestly, she couldn't be sure of anything anymore. Part of her wished for a memory wipe. A few moments of pain and all the doubts were gone. Of course, forgetting about a problem won't make it go away. Nova couldn't see herself the kind of person to turn a blind eye to injustice, especially not if it affected everyone, everywhere. Even if it would make her life so much easier, she couldn't do it. It just wasn't…fair. In the end, however, the pile of lies and contradictions that her life had turned into was starting to drive her mad. While she could hide her issues from most people, doing so became increasingly difficult. One of the few certainties she had was that the Zerg were a force of evil and had to be stopped regardless. Now, even that became a shade of gray. Nova didn't know how far the universe could continue pushing her. Everyone has a breaking point, and the ghost feared that hers would be reached sooner rather than later.

"I'm sorry, your highness, I need to leave. I…I have to think." She ran off without waiting for a reply.

Valerian didn't mind that much. He understood. The vision was strange and near incomprehensible, even to him. The crown prince had feared that he had been wrong all along, but he couldn't imagine just how much. Oh, how Valerian hated being right sometimes.

He tried to get up, only for his headache to force him back down. Yep, the doctor was right, he thought. Maybe he should stay in bed for a while. The universe could do without him for a few hours.

**Bridge, White Star, Dead Man's Rock**

In spite of the constant buzzing of consoles and officers, Williams felt the bridge was eerily silent and uncomfortable. He thought himself to be a man who did things by the book. Either get them done right, or don't do them at all. Quarantining a planet without any direct evidence of a Zerg infestation made him feel dirty. Normally, a planet-wide quarantine was a measure not undertaken lightly. Most planets depended on interstellar trade to get the goods they needed, and Dead Man's Rock was probably no different. How many innocent people would suffer if they kept this up for more than a few days? How long before the planet starts to live up to its name? When he brought the matter to the general's attention, Morrigan laughed and said that you'd sooner find a Zerg with a sense of humor than a innocent man on Dead Man's Rock. The captain remained silent afterwards. With the general on the bridge, Williams was practically redundant. After a while, the ship's executive officer showed up to give his report.

"Sir, the planet has been quarantined, as you requested."

"Excellent." Replied the general. "What about the sensor sweeps?"

"We're still looking for the Raider ships, but their ground forces have been spotted boarding a train moving away from Deadman's Port."

"Can we intercept them?"

"No, sir. The train has moved into the underground tunnel system, and there's no way to disable it from here. If it weren't for the new sensors, we wouldn't have been able to track them at all."

"Well, good to see that our 'shamefully wasteful' scanning equipment is proving its worth." Williams sneered at the last comment. The general was insufferable already. He didn't need an overinflated ego to go along with it. Thankfully, Morrigan wasn't the kind to gloat and continued. "Can you figure out where they're going?"

"Some research base in the middle of nowhere, sir. Dominion owned. I couldn't get much else about it. Except for this. Our sensor array picked up some unusual biosignatures, but we don't know what they are."

"Show me." The XO gave Morrigan his datapad. The general looked at it and shook his head. "You wanted proof, Williams? Here you have it. A nice, juicy Zerg infestation." He threw the datapad into the captain's hands. "Get a company of marines and have them burn it to the ground. When the Raiders show up, cut them down as well."

"General," the captain interceded "this doesn't look like any Zerg I know off. For all we know, we could be raiding a fertilizer plant."

"Williams, why would the Raiders go to a fertilizer plant? Don't you think it's a little suspicious that they are going to the one place on the planet that has Zerg on it? Don't you think it's odd that Raynor and the Zerg keep running into one another? Just because we can't identify the type of Zerg doesn't mean there aren't any. It could easily be a type not in the database."

"First, our database contains every single Zerg strain ever, past and present. You were very adamant about that, if I remember. 'Knowledge is power', as you are so fond of saying. The probability that this is a Zerg is negligible. As for the Raiders, how do we know that they know where they're going? Maybe they picked the first train away from the city and hoped to hide in the caves until we forgot about them. Maybe they're just really, really, unlucky."

"With that kind of luck, they should have been dead already. My order still stands. If this is a new type of Zerg, it's all the more important that we learn more about it. I'll be in my quarters, if there are any further developments."

With the general gone, the XO asked: "Should we really follow up on that? It is a Dominion research base, after all. We could get court-martialed for this…"

"If this goes south, the general will get court-martialed, not us." The captain replied. "Just follow orders and we'll be fine."

"Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

"Sir, I think the general is insane. With the kind of equipment we have, that 'Zerg signature' could be anything from a calibration error to the remnants of a zergling turd. I've worked as a sensor officer before my promotion and I'll eat my hat if we find any Zerg there. His paranoia is putting everyone on edge and it's affecting morale"

"I agree, but it's not like we can do anything about it. He is our superior and, regardless of his competence, his word is law."

"I know, captain, but what if he's wrong? What if we're about to slaughter a facility filled with scientists working on civilian projects?"

"Well, if they had to come all the way here to do their research, I doubt it's the kind that could see the light of day. As much as I hate to agree with the good general, there is something fishy down there."

"Still, what if he's wrong?"

"What if he's right, and we did nothing? Morrigan is an ass, but he hasn't been wrong thus far. He's right about Zerg not giving you second chances. We can't afford to ignore this."

"I…understand, sir. I don't like it, but I'll carry on regardless."

"Agreed, lieutenant. Dismissed."

The executive officer saluted and turned to leave. Before he could, Williams called him back.

"Just out of curiosity, who owns the facility?"

"An archeological corporation named the Moebius Foundation."

"I see. Well, carry on."


	33. Chapter 33

**Moebius Facility, Dead Man's Rock**

In a forgotten corner in one of the facility's warehouses, a small warp-gate flickered to life. A flash of light was visible, and two beings appeared in the room, seemingly conjured out of thin air. One appeared to be a dark-skinned human, armed with a C-10 rifle. He had gone by many names and had many forms, but today he was known as Samir Duran. The other creature was an evil best left undescribed. At face value, it might look like a Protoss with a malformed skull. The crown of its head was transparent, showing a massive brain that coursed with power. Lightning crackled across its bluish, scale-covered body, as if the flesh was unable to contain the psychic might within. Wing-like structures and tendrils of light flowed from the creature's back, and the malice glowing from its eyes mirrored the insanity of its creator. This being was a Protoss/Zerg hybrid named Ka'leth. As soon as the two got their bearings, they set out.

"These humans certainly know how to make life difficult for us, don't you agree?"

"INDEED." Answered the hybrid. "Their INQUISITIVE nature is of great VALUE, yet also a great OBSTACLE to our PLANS. It was INEVITABLE that someone would FIND this PLACE eventually. I FEAR they may already KNOW too much of the MASTER's plan."

"They know much, I admit, but not what matters most. Your brethren here are still premature, and we cannot risk moving them with the Terran fleets overhead. I fear that their destruction is our only option. We cannot afford to show our strengths and weaknesses to the world just yet."

"It is LAMENTABLE, but NECESSARY. However, I do not UNDERSTAND how you will hope to ACCOMPLISH this. I can SENSE the Terrans closing in UPON us, we do not HAVE the TIME or the EQUIPMENT to eradicate them."

"We won't need to do it ourselves. We can let our enemies do our 'dirty work' for us." Duran had grown fond of using human idioms. In fact, he had grown fond of humans in general. He probably liked his current persona more than any he had used over the past few millennia. They were an odd bunch, those Terrans. Things were never boring when they were around. Duran might even miss them once their species had been obliterated.

"HOW? The DOMINION knows of you. THEY will not take ORDERS from either of US."

"Not knowingly, but I know how to make them dance to our tune. All we need to do is set the specimens free."

"HOW will that RESULT in my brethren's DESTRUCTION? They may ESCAPE the Terrans' WRATH, or the humans could LEARN from them as they do BATTLE."

"Unlikely. The human in charge of this fleet is unusually predictable. Apparently he fears and hates Zerg more than anything else in the universe. His first thought will be to send some soldiers to secure this facility, in the same fashion similar to someone attempting to reclaim a pond from ducks by throwing pieces of bread into it. His men will almost certainly fail, resulting, inevitably, in him bombarding this place with nuclear fire, which in turn will eliminate any trace of our existence and that of our experiments."

"You put much FAITH in the HUMAN's predictability. If he DOES not act as you BELIEVE he will, or if ANOTHER interferes, RUIN might follow."

The hybrid brought up a good point. Humans had a nasty habit of making things go wrong at the worst possible time. A phenomenon they have dubbed 'Murphy's Law'. Whoever this 'Murphy' was, Duran wished he could have met him. It would have been quite enlightening.

"I suppose you are right, but we have little choice in the matter. If they find them in stasis, they could learn even more. I would hate to see them use our own knowledge against us. They have proven to be more than capable of such things, if their history is to be believed."

"You SPEAK as if you RESPECT them…"

As much as Duran hated to admit it, some part of him did. It was unbecoming of him to feel anything but disdain for a lesser species, but the humans have proven themselves just as capable as the Ancient's children in some ways, without receiving his blessings. No species he knew got as far as they did on their own.

"They are worthy foes, Ka'leth. Their tenacity cannot be understated, and their creative spirit has surprised us all many times over. Even our master cannot predict their actions with certainty anymore. They are a threat in their own way. To make matters worse, their bodies are surprisingly malleable. They respond frighteningly well to xenografting and infestation, and they are becoming more powerful with each generation. Had we been a few centuries later, we might not have been able to challenge them at all. Already they possess far more power than you would expect, and you should respect them all for that."

"ALL of THEM, or only ONE?"

While the hybrid didn't say it outright, they both know whom he was referring to. The Queen of Blades was probably one of the most powerful beings Duran ever met. At her peak, she would have easily been able to defeat him, along with any Protoss, Terran, or Hybrid alive today. If it weren't for the fact that she was preoccupied with the New Overmind at the time, the Queen probably would have seen through his disguise during the Brood War. If she had, the results could have been catastrophic. Not just for the Ancient's plans, but also for Duran himself. Pretending to be her consort was one thing. Being mind-controlled into becoming her consort was another altogether. On the whole, Duran just wanted to forget that mission. After the Overmind's demise, the Ancient wanted to make sure the Zerg would never regain their original power. If they found a leader that he could not control, the Swarm would have become a great threat to his plans. As such, Duran was dispatched to cause as much of a mess as possible. His task was to eliminate the New Overmind and make the Queen the dominant power in the sector, causing the others to ally with each other to bring her down. They would destroy her, but cripple themselves in the process. Enough Zerg would survive for their experiments, without risking their intervention. All went as planned, until the Queen of Blades managed to defeat the forces arrayed against her. Rather than removing the Zerg threat, Duran had unwittingly made them stronger than ever. It took years of manipulation to correct that. However, the story of the Zerg didn't end there. If it did, perhaps the situation would have been more manageable. Kerrigan somehow survived, and is now rebuilding the Swarm. Their shadow still loomed over the sector, however small and feint it may be now. Though his master didn't want to admit it, they would interfere with the Ancient's plan, one way or another. Duran hoped he could minimize the damage when they did.

They walked to the facility's central control room, eliminating anyone they found with a bullet or a psychic blast. When they arrived, Duran opened the locks on the holding cells and released the stasis fields. One by one, the underdeveloped hybrids fell out. Some were enraged and began to attack anything nearby. Others seemed afraid and tried to run, only to be forced into the melee or be cut down by their more aggressive brethren. Some simply fell to the ground, their brains too underdeveloped for them to survive. Duran purged as much data as he could from the console, shot it a few times, and turned to Ka'leth, who stared blankly at the security camera footage.

"Is there something amiss, Ka'leth?"

"SUCH a WASTE. They are as mewling BABES within the bodies of WOLVES. They do not KNOW their STRENGHT. Their BODIES are FRAIL compared to MINE, but ALREADY, they are STRONG enough to KILL. Confused, frightened, they will LASH out to ANYONE, Terran, or otherwise. They HAVE no COHERENCE, no LEADERSHIP, no UNITY. They will NEVER know of their POTENTIAL. Without PURPOSE, I fear they will wander AIMLESSLY until the VOID takes them. I PRAY the Terrans are as THOUROUGH as you think."

Duran agreed. These hybrids, though weak compared to their fully-developed brethren, were a force to be reckoned with. The link that bound the hybrids to the Ancient's will, a precaution he put in to make sure they could never turn on him like their predecessors did, would never fully form on its own. These things were essentially wild, unable to control themselves. Though they were intelligent, they wouldn't know any purpose, or even how to properly use their bodies. They'd act on instinct and might see everyone as a threat, especially the human guards that tried shooting them. In time, they might calm down and learn to act responsible, maybe even form a society of sorts, but not now. Duran knew he couldn't stay here, so he and his companion left the way they came. He felt dirty. Doing this felt like leaving a bunch of human toddlers in a box of hand grenades. It was a necessary act, though. This facility would be ash within hours. The hybrids, along with the threat they faced, would be destroyed, put out of their misery, forever. There are more than enough other facilities to cover for the losses here. The Ancient's plans were safe, for now.

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

Williams was directing his ship from his command chair when he heard the heavy footfalls of military-grade boots behind him. General Morrigan, the least subtle man in the universe, decided to stop by. An instant later, a notification arrived, alerting them that the ground team had landed. The general's timing was impeccable. No way that was a coincidence.

"Captain, I suppose our ground team is in position by now?"

"Yes, sir. Just got the notification. What are your orders?"

"Tell them to move into the facility and secure it. I'll decide how to proceed based on what they find."

Williams nodded and ordered the ground team forward. He put the audio feed on the bridge speakers so the general could hear as well.

"Alpha squad, take point! Bravo and Gamma, move in behind us. Delta, cover us from the ridge. Okay, we've arrived at the gates…Something's wrong, where are all the guards? Fourth, do you see anything?" His question was followed by a series of negatives. "Odd. Door's in lockdown. Carlson, satchel on the door, pronto! Fourth, come down and meet us." An explosion could be heard in the background. "Alright, Alpha squad, on me! Bravo, secure the train station underground. Gamma, sweep the west wing. Delta, stay here and don't let anything out. No comm. chatter unless absolutely necessary. Alright, people, move it!"

For about ten minutes, the audio feed stayed quiet. Williams didn't like this. The 'Zerg' signatures were still there, even brighter than they were before. However, the facility's thick walls made it impossible to determine how many of them were out there, or if they were moving. Thermal imaging came up empty as well. If the facility was under lock-down, however, one could safely assume that something had gone horribly wrong. The lack of guards probably meant that whatever was in the lab got out somehow and they were supposed to catch it. Judging by the utter lack of people, Williams guessed that they didn't succeed.

"Alpha squad here, we found the control room. All shot to hell. Looks like someone opened all the cells. No telling what they set loose. We found lots of body pieces on the way here, some of them don't look like they came from humans. Bravo squad, do you read?"

"Just arrived at the station LT, no contacts…Wait…Oh hell, scratch that, we got contact! Lotsa contact! Shoot them, you morons! Shoot…AAARG!"

"Johnson, what was that? Come in, sergeant, what the hell happened?"

A brief moment of static was followed by panicked screams. "Dammit, there's too many! Too many! Get ba…" He never finished his sentence.

"Johnson, come in! Oh hell, Gamma, Delta, come in…I repeat, come in! Can anyone in this blasted facility hear me?! I didn't give you permission to die, you cowards! Respond!" Only silence answered his call. In the background, gunfire and inhuman roars could be heard. Eventually, even these died down. "Dammit. Alpha squad, we're shooting our way out!"

"Contact, two o'clock!" cried one of the soldiers. "What in sweet mommy's name is that?"

"Looks like someone glued legs onto a hydralisk." said another. "Why isn't it attacking?"

"I don't wanna find out!" barked the commander. "Wax it!" Gunfire ensued, followed by an another bestial roar. One that sounded like surprise rather than anger. "Oh frak, it's got a shield! Shoot it! EMP rounds, don't let it near! That one too! Shoot them all, damn you, shoo…"

The feed turned into static. One of the bridge officers started pushing buttons on one of the consoles, hoping it was a technical error. Everyone knew he was wasting his time. After a few minutes of silence, Williams said: "Dammit, we have to send a rescue party."

"No." the general replied, with the finality of a hammer blow, "They'll all be dead by the time we land. I'm not sending more men into the slaughter needlessly. We're not risking operational efficiency to pick up a few bodies. Nuke the facility."

"But sir…"

"I don't need to tell you what would happen if those things spread. Nuke it, and keep nuking until the entire building is turned to glass. God help us if any of those things leave there alive."

This was the only choice they had, and Williams knew it. He had always prided himself on being able to bring nearly all of his troops back, even if they were only corpses for the funeral. Then again, he had been fighting insurgents for much of his career. They generally have the courtesy of returning the bodies of the fallen. These Zerg, assuming they were Zerg at all, probably wouldn't do them that favor. He ordered one of the ship's ghost operatives to a drop pod and got the nuclear launch codes from the database. Williams prayed that the families of those men would forgive him for giving them nothing but a empty casket to mourn.

_A/N Well, my first attempt at a horror-eske…thing reminiscent of that Alien movie every sci-fi/horror writer and moviemaker have been ripping off for decades. How did I do?_


	34. Chapter 34

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

The emperor rushed to his chair and activated his communicator. He had just received word that General Morrigan had a report to make. He also heard that the good general demanded that they'd talk immediately. Whatever it was, it couldn't wait, not even for the emperor to finish his lunch. Mengsk wondered just why he was even complying. On one hand, no one should have the authority to boss him around like an army recruit. On the other, the general probably had something important to say and making him wait felt rather petty.

"General Morrigan, is there any reason you are interrupting my lunch?"

"What was the Moebius Foundation working on at Dead Man's Rock?" Harsh, direct, authorative. The general still hasn't picked up any manners. "I know they were working on the Zerg, but I need specifics."

"General, I'm a politician, not a walking database. What makes you think I know those things off my head?"

"Because I doubt anyone would dare to make a Protoss/Zerg hybrid without your knowledge and consent."

The emperor nearly choked on his coffee. "How…What do you know about that? That's classified, even for you!"

"I sent my men to investigate a facility run by Moebius after the scanners picked up Zerg signatures." The general continued, ignoring the emperor's outburst. "They found strange Zerg-like creatures, and some of them were reported to have shields. That can only mean one thing: Moebius has been merging Zerg with either Protoss technology or Protoss DNA. Either of which could be very bad for us. I need to know everything if I am to stop this new threat."

Mengsk could only swear under his breath. "I assume this line is secure and there's no one else in the room on your end." Morrigan nodded. "Good. There is no threat, general. I ordered the creation of Protoss/Zerg hybrids. I have done so to protect the Dominion by strengthening her armies. These hybrids are near unstoppable and will guarantee our safety for years to come."

"Until they decide to make us their lunch…"

"General, my patience is great, but it isn't endless. I do _not_ appreciate your sarcasm."

"With all due respect, your highness, a lot of people, including you, have tried to use Zerg for their own ends in the past. It never ends well. I don't need to remind you of what happened to the UED expeditionary force, or to Kerrigan…"

"ENOUGH!" The emperors patience was finally at an end. "I don't expect you to understand my actions. I don't even expect you to respect me. I do, however, expect you NOT to second-guess me, not now, not ever! I know things you can't even begin to understand. The responsibility I carry every day would crush a lesser man, yourself included. I admit, sometimes things go wrong. We're all human, and I am no exception. But I assure you, general, that the Dominion always wins through, no matter the cost. That is why I chose you to fight the Zerg. Like me, you can make the decisions that no one else can. You know that people will vilify the both of us if they knew everything we did, so you of all people should understand that I have to do things you don't want me to."

Morrigan sighed. Arcturus feared that his oratory skills alone may not be enough to sway the general. "Your highness, if we depend on other species for our security, it will bite us in the ass eventually. You and I might not live long enough to see it happen, but I don't want to die knowing that I may have doomed humanity a few centuries from now. Look at our history: whenever a population tried to enslave another, it ended up doing more harm than good. If we use the Zerg to do our dirty work, we'll end up becoming dependent on them. Like the Roman empire two millennia ago, humanity will end up becoming soft. We'll stagnate, other powers will grow stronger and, in the end, destroy us. Assuming, of course, that the hybrids can even be controlled in the first place. Judging by the fact that they managed to escape and slaughter everyone they saw, my men included, that scenario might be more likely than you think."

Mengsk's jaw dropped. "Slaughtered? That's impossible."

"There's about 30 men that would disagree with you, your highness." The general replied.

"The hybrids Moebius created were barely alive, let alone capable enough to challenge armed marines. You must be mistaken. We had an incident where an intelligent, but uncontrollable hybrid was freed and slaughtered everyone aboard the station it was on. I ordered the other specimens destroyed until we could figure out how to put them on a leash. Did you collect their corpses?"

"No. If these things were to spread, the damage they could do would be beyond reckoning. I couldn't risk that. I had the site nuked…"

"Nuked?!" The emperor said in disbelief.

"…repeatedly. I wasn't going to send more meat into the grinder. We have yet to encounter the Swarm and when we do, I'm certain we'll need every man."

"Your sense of subtlety astounds me."

"Subtlety is an acceptable casualty in wartime. The Zerg aren't going to show us leniency or restraint, I don't see why we should give them any in return. As for Moebius, I've heard quite a few rumors about them. Scuttlebutt has it that their leader is an alien in disguise and is secretly manipulating you. Preposterous, of course, but, I do find it a little odd that you would allow the Moebius Foundation to perform such dangerous research with so little oversight."

"Choose your next words carefully, general." The emperor's tone was thick with anger. "If I didn't know you better, I'd interpret those words as treason."

"If you knew me, your highness, you'd know that I'd never sell out the Dominion, not for anything. I request that you get someone to send me whatever data we have on these hybrids. Call it a gut feeling, but I doubt I've seen the last of those things."

Without bothering to wait for a reply, Morrigan signed off, leaving the emperor alone. With a cry of rage, he punched the screen in front of him, shattering it to pieces. It wasn't just the general's lack of manners that upset him, or the fact that Mengsk needed him. If those hybrids were real, and Morrigan had no reason to lie, Moebius had been working behind his back for who knows how long. The emperor could handle another threat to the Dominion. He couldn't handle the thought of anyone playing him like that. Mengsk knew that now, more than ever, he needed to keep it cool and started to work on a plan to get himself out of this mess. Perhaps Valerian would know more. He might not be willing to share, but that didn't matter. Arcturus Mengsk always won in the end…

**Kaldir**

Kerrigan was quite proud of herself. One by one, the rogue queens either submitted to her or died in battle against her. In just under a week, she had juggled alliances, ambushes, assassinations, and a dozen other tricks to convince her rebellious counterparts that submitting was the best option. Machiavelli would be proud of her. Admittedly, she could have done it a lot faster. Zerg bow down to the strongest willed, and by now Kerrigan was more than capable of overpowering them through sheer willpower. However, she knew that these queens would be pushovers compared to a real broodmother, so she decided to play it differently. They would be excellent practice for the challenges ahead. Practice that was sorely needed. If things went wrong, she could always have tried the brute force method.

On the surface, Za'gara had greatly expanded the hive cluster. Kerrigan knew that they wouldn't be able to stay here forever and ordered her to hoard whatever resources they could before moving on. Kaldir wasn't a terribly rich moon, but there were enough resources near the surface to make her operation viable. As an added bonus, the broodmother discovered two more leviathans: an adult one that Na'fash must have used to get here, and a smaller infant she created herself. Za'gara immediately took care of the little one. A few days later, she proudly deemed it space-worthy. Kerrigan approved. With two more leviathans she'd be able to carry around a much larger army, as well as offer better protection against the Terran and Protoss fleets when they inevitably caught up with the fledgling Swarm.

Abatur was working around the clock to improve the Swarm and had been surprisingly successful. The DNA from the snow-creatures' matriarch had proven as interesting as he initially thought (to him anyway). Apart from their resistance to the cold and a myriad of smaller mutations, the creatures had a surprisingly efficient metabolism, allowing them to generate a lot of energy from a relatively small amount of food. An ability that would make logistics a lot easier in the future. The Swarm's chief geneticist quickly spread it to the other Zerg. The rogue queens themselves were interesting too. Their ability to control relatively large groups of Zerg would streamline the Swarm's command structure a great deal. Kerrigan didn't trust the rather independent queens with such power yet, but allowed the generally more obedient overlords to receive the mutation. The effects were almost immediate.

When it became clear that none of the queens would even become strong enough to be Kerrigan's equal, she sent Tai and Larry to the surface. Their 'expertise' would be better suited to helping Abathur hunt down the elusive matriarchs of the snow-beasts. While on one of their hunts, they stumbled (literally) onto something rather unusual: A small Protoss village, only a few clicks from the ruins of psi-link spires. Not a military base, a _village_. No soldiers, no weapons, just civilians. Kerrigan wondered why the Protoss would ever want to colonize this planet. Last time she checked, the Protoss didn't react well to extreme cold. Why would they even bother coming to this forsaken ball of ice? She had Tiberias round the Protoss up and force-marched them back to the hive. Answers would come soon enough.

As Cain and the Protoss neared the edge of the hive cluster, Kerrigan decided to meet them. Most of the prisoners were quiet, afraid that a wrong move might cost them a limb. Given the anxious nature of the roaches surrounding them, their fears weren't entirely unjustified. One, however, remained defiant. A female looking Protoss, clad in armor Kerrigan didn't recognize, was vocally arguing with her captor. Whether she was suicidal or just plain stupid, Kerrigan couldn't tell.

Cain spoke, his voice thick with annoyance. "Well, here the prisoners you wanted. Sorry we're late, the Protoss need a little snack-break every now and then…"

"We needed to stand still for our shields to function through the storms." The Protoss spoke with fire, and was probably playing with it too. "Do not project human weaknesses onto us, you tainted sac of filth!"

"Sticks and stones, my dear, sticks and stones. Can I please rip her head off?" Cain asked his queen. "It's not like we can infest them and gagging her isn't going to work. Bloody telepaths…no offence."

Kerrigan looked at her prisoners. Not just with her regular eyes, but with her mind as well. All of them, even the vocal one, were terrified, although some were better at hiding it than others. Being at the mercy of the Zerg…the former ghost remembered that feeling. Part of her advocated killing them. If they escaped, they could warn the others before the Zerg had time to escape. However, Kerrigan couldn't do it. Looking at the fear in their eyes, she didn't have the stomach to see it through.

"No, Tiberias, we'll keep them for a while."

Tai seemed rather surprised. "We are? Why…"

"Because I say so. I want you to put them into the one of the leviathan's holds and get someone to guard them."

"As you wish. Oh, where are my manners! My lady, this is Lassara. Lassara, this is…"

"The Queen of Blades," the prisoner interrupted, the hate dripping from every word, "and the scourge of our sector. We know of you and the atrocities you have committed, 'my lady'."

Kerrigan did her best to brush the Protoss' hatred aside. It was inevitable that they weren't going to be friends. "Well, you have me at a disadvantage, Lassara. May I ask what you and your friends are doing here?"

"We are colonists, nothing more."

"That's a load of crap." Tiberias claimed. "You settled in the least accessible place on one of the least hospitable place in the sector, and you had a military-grade psychic jamming device strong enough to make yourself invisible from orbit. You're hiding something."

"The jammer is there to ensure our safety from the likes of you when the Templar cannot, and our warp technology allows us to settle wherever we please. Just because you kind is too primitive to settle here, does not mean we all are, abomination." Lassara parried the question well, but Kerrigan still got the feeling that she was hiding something. The Protoss' mind was too well shielded to say what, however.

"Too bad the snow-beasts like to hide in the same place you do. I was hoping to find those, but I'm sure Abathur will like you lot just as much." The other Protoss seemed to freeze. Horror flooded their minds yet again. "I know he can't infest you people, but he sure likes to try."

"I don't think we need more Protoss experiments." The queen finally said. "Tai, take them to the leviathan and arrange their accommodations." Kerrigan didn't know what she was thinking. A voice in her head was yelling at her, demanding to know how this could possibly help. Honestly, she didn't have an answer to that. Was it some shred of humanity that begged her to spare them? Would earning their forgiveness redeem her? Would they even want to believe that she'd changed, that she's trying to leave the Queen of Blades behind her? Would it matter if, by some miracle, they did?

As the prisoners left, most of them still cowered in fear, trying not to make eye contact with Kerrigan or any of the Zerg. Kerrigan mentally cursed. Being human in a world that hated humanity is a lot harder than she had hoped. Her mind ran off, hoping to find some sort of distraction. She found a small pack of Zerg several kilometers away, stalking more snow-creatures. It would have to do…

_A/N Okay, I would like to say that Lassara is another one of my own, but she isn't…I think. Ragnarok666 pointed out to me a very interesting link to a Team Liquid forum thread. On it was a link to a picture of a civilian Protoss female aboard the leviathan from IGN. According to the thread, her name was 'Lassara' and she's not very fond of Kerrigan. I haven't found any other source confirming that that is her name or much about her personality, so I'm not sure if this is a genuine leak or if someone made it up. If it is the latter, I apologize to the creator for using their character without asking. A Protoss civilian tagging along with the Zerg seems like an idea that could really lead somewhere, but I didn't intend to rip anyone off. If this is your character, please PM me with some proof and I'll acknowledge you. I wouldn't like it if people ran off with my characters and claimed they were their own, and I'm sure many of you wouldn't appreciate either._


	35. Chapter 35

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

While Kerrigan had grown quite comfortable on Kaldir, she knew the Swarm couldn't stay there for long. The Protoss fleet would probably wait for a week or so more before actually bothering to investigate the distant moon, but the Queen didn't want to press her luck. She had ordered the surface hives to breed as many Zerg as the leviathans could carry before decommissioning them. The subterranean hives were sealed off from the surface and rendered dormant, hopefully hiding them from the inevitable Protoss retaliation force. Kerrigan figured that they might come in handy later. With the leviathans filled to bursting, the Zerg fleet took off and left the frozen moon behind them.

With Izsha's help and some star maps 'borrowed' from the Protoss, the Zerg found a place for a more permanent settlement. The planet they were looking for was called Marrakesh by the Protoss. It was a relatively young planet with few life-forms more advanced than single-celled bacteria until the Protoss tried to terraform it centuries ago. The place was tectonically unstable in some places, revealing huge, easily accessible deposits of vespene gas. Hoping to make a profitable mining colony and attract colonists, the Protoss attempted to seed trees and wildlife from their homeworld. However, things did not go as planned. First, most of the vespene gas they found was contaminated with hydrogen sulfide, which made it explosive until it was refined. Second, vespene gas accelerates the metabolism of some species, including a few of the species they had seeded on the planet. Trees the size of skyscrapers and wildlife strong enough to rip a tank apart were the result, making effective mining operations and colonization impossible. Trying to undo their mistake with orbital fire only made things worse: the vespene deposits detonated, adding lava flows to the long list of reasons no one wanted to live there. Eventually, the Protoss realized that planet had beaten them and that the only way to fix it was a planet-wide bombardment. However, the first-born respect life and decide to leave the world to its own devices, trying to forget their failure and hoping that the rest of the of the galaxy would do the same.

A resource-rich deathworld where everything was trying to kill you was an opportunity the Swarm could not pass by. To them, a planet with thick jungles and vicious beasts, side-by-side with lava flows and suffocating volcanic gasses is a small slice of Zerg heaven. With near limitless funding, they could quickly fortify the planet, hopefully acting as a deterrent for the Protoss fleets. Kerrigan knew that if the other Protoss were as fanatical as the ones that tried to kill her on Kaldir, a cold war was probably the closest thing to peace she could ever hope for. When she thought about it, the resulting arms race might end up strengthening both factions, giving the sector a better chance when the inevitable Hybrid invasion struck.

The trip to Marrakesh was a long one, giving Kerrigan some time to give her suit a much needed inspection. Although the cold should have destroyed it, she managed to keep most of her suit intact thanks to her abilities. The gloves weren't so fortunate, however. Several of the armor plates were gone, lost somewhere on the frozen moon. Replacing them probably wasn't possible. At best, she could make sure the damage wasn't going to get any worse. This wasn't the real issue that was bothering her, however. The cause of the damage was far more worrisome: somehow, the organ growing within her arm was able to launch a small cluster of eggs with enough force to penetrate an immortal's armor from at least 50 paces away. Most of her abilities thus far had been high-powered versions of the talents she had as a ghost, but this was another thing altogether. Strangest of all, why didn't it bother her before? Being scared out of your mind because a bunch of vicious creatures launching themselves out of your body seems like an entirely appropriate response to a situation like that. Perhaps it was her training that told her to keep going no matter how strange the world around her became. The burning pain that was slowly creeping up her arms became a secondary concern when bullets started flying. On the other hand, it could also be something else, something far more terrifying. Commanding Zerg, evolving new strains, alien powers, all these didn't really _feel_ unnatural to Kerrigan any more. She began to realize that the only reason she considered even them unnatural is because she knew humans weren't supposed to be able to do things like that. To her, however, they had become second nature.

Could she learn to live with that? Would she even want to live with that? The thought of ripping the bloody things out and praying that they wouldn't come back crossed her mind again. The more pragmatic part of her mind, however, stopped her, knowing full well that denial was pointless. Her infestation had been so thorough that it was unlikely that she'd ever truly be human again, not even with Xel'Naga space magic. Her best option was to make use of her abilities and do as much good as possible. The Zerg may have claimed her body, but they didn't control her will. Not yet, anyway. As long as her mind was still her own, Kerrigan reasoned, she'd still be able to direct the Zerg towards a less destructive path, away from the past, and away from the Queen of Blades.

The burning in her limbs flared up again, as if to challenge her resolve. Kerrigan didn't mind. Nothing in the universe comes without a struggle, and as far as the art of fighting was concerned, she was a master.

**Prison Hold, Leviathan**

"Well, that's the lights working…Let's see…Yep, I think you have everything you need." Tai said with a degree of pride. He and a group of drones had been 'redecorating' one of the holds to 'accommodate' their Protoss 'guests'. To him, it seemed comfortable enough, though he'd doubt the prisoners would agree. He even managed to put together a water filter out of spare parts and cast-offs from Abathur's research, providing a pool of mostly clean water for the Protoss to drink. Or absorb through their skin, whatever these aliens did. Kerrigan ordered him to provide, so he did what he could to be the best host possible, given the situation. A task that's quite difficult when the only one willing to talk to you hates your guts.

"It certainly took you long enough, I suppose." Lassara muttered. She had been appointed as the de-facto leader and spokesperson of the group, by virtue of being the only one with the courage to look the infested Terran in the eye for longer than two seconds. Much to Cain's annoyance, her demeanor hasn't changed at all since they got on board. She looked at the pool and said: "Do you expect us to bathe in that filthy hole you've produced? Surely you can do better."

"I apologize, princess. If you find your accommodations lacking, there is a public pool downstairs. I'm sure the zerglings would love some to see some new faces…" When he realized that Lassara wasn't amused with his attempt at sarcasm, he said: "Oh, what do you want from me, woman! We're on a warship, not a cruise liner. It's clean enough, I checked. We're not completely oblivious to Protoss physiology, you know. It's as clean as the pools found on Aiur."

"That is not surprising, for your wretched kind have infested our homeworld for years."

Tiberias looked at her for about a minute when he realized what she was truly talking about. "This has nothing to do with your living arrangements, does it? We've insulted your Protoss honor by showing you mercy, haven't we?"

"Hmph, you are observant. Is it so difficult to believe that would rather not be your mistress' plaything? That death may be more preferable to us than continued existence as her slaves?"

"If you don't want to live anymore, why not just ritually disembowel yourself? Better yet, try to escape and get shot into glorious little pieces by yours truly. Certainly would save me a lot of trouble."

"Perhaps causing such trouble is worth bearing your torment. We are not templar, creature. A pointless death in battle is not worthy of the Khalai. We are the foundation of our people. If we throw our lives away, our people will perish with us."

Cain rubbed his forehead. "So instead of killing yourself with your Protoss honor in case of capture, you only get to annoy your jailor as he opens up a can of horribleness onto you. Looks like someone drew the short end of the stick."

"Inflict whatever tortures you must, monstrosity. Though we are not warriors, we shall bear them with grace and honor." The terrified looks of her companions made her words seem hollow.

"Well, lucky for you, her majesty ordered me not to harm you. In other words, the only one getting tortured today is me with your incessant moaning."

Lassara paused for a while, tired of talking. She was still on edge, for obvious reasons, and seemed uncertain. She probably did not expect to have lived this long already. "The Queen of Blades has quite the reputation. What is she planning? Are we to play some part in her treacherous schemes?"

"Doubt it, she's not that malicious. Killing or torturing defenseless prisoners doesn't really strike me as her thing."

The Protoss looked at him, confused. "Are we speaking of the same being?"

"Well, are you talking about the Queen of Blades or the lady in the ghost uniform?"

"As if there is any difference…"

"Well, yes…" The Protoss didn't buy it. Tai simply shrugged. "Believe me or don't, I really don't care. Right now, I got bigger things to worry about. Probably should be cleaning my gun…"

Cain turned around and left the room. Before he passed through the 'door', Lassara called him back. "Wait. Can you tell us where we are going?"

He thought for a while before replying. "Ah, why not? By the time you lot are able to escape, we'll have fortified the crap out of the place anyway. We're going to a planet called Marrakesh. Probably set up a base of operations there. Might even be able to find you are more comfortable cell…"

Lassara's eyes widened. "Marrakesh? Are you mad?"

"Probably. Why, have you heard of it?" The infested Terran suddenly realized why the Queen wanted to keep them around. If they slip their 'tongue', who knows what secrets they might unintentionally reveal?

"The world is mentioned as a cautionary tale for our young. It is a living monument to what happens when we are blinded by our greed and interfere in a world's affairs without forethought. It is part of the reason why we do not colonize worlds at the rate the Terrans do. Unlike them, we know the effects of our folly. Marrakesh is a world of death and despair. The beasts upon it will, without doubt, destroy you."

Tiberias simply laughed. "You know, I used to think the humans would end up destroying the Zerg. Never in my life did I expect to end up as one of them, but here I am. We'll be fine, don't worry."

"It is not for your fate that I fear, creature."

"Hey, if I'm wrong and we all die horribly, you have a chance to escape! Try looking on the bright side for once." With that, he turned around and left, leaving a few lesser Zerg to watch over the prisoners.

One of the other Protoss walked up to Lassara and said in a dismissive tone: "Arrogant creature. That we could have lost so much to the likes of him…"

"Do not underestimate them, Tallis. Those far greater than us have done so and our people have paid dearly for it. The chance that we may leave their clutches alive is slim, but it is still a possibility. 'Faith before fear', as our Hierarch is so fond of saying. We should interfere in any way possible, as well as learn as much as we can from them. If one of us makes it back, that knowledge may save lives. We cannot throw away such advantages is times like these."

"Wisely said, Lassara. Speaking of knowledge, did you notice how the abomination claimed that his ruler and the Queen of Blades were two different beings?"

"I have. Most curious, I must say, and intriguing."

"Indeed. Do you believe he spoke the truth?"

Lassara shook her head. "Unlikely. The Queen of Blades has tricked us before and I have little doubt that we are but pawns in her games. Yet, I do not see what course she has set, and the uncertainty frightens me. Thus far, we have not been harmed, but that does not mean she will not change her mind in the future."

"Assuming, of course, she survives Marrakesh…"

"Arrogant though they may be, Tallis, they are not fools. It's not the chance of failure that frightens me. If they succeed, how much stronger could they become?"


	36. Chapter 36

**High Orbit, Marrakesh**

From space, the planet Marrakesh looked like a work of art. Much of it was covered in a lush, green jungle. Red and black lines were drawn erratically over its surface, indicating the flows of lava, both past and present. Small patches of blue could also be seen; bodies of water, too small to really be called oceans. The world's pleasant gravity and nitrogen/oxygen atmosphere made it seem like the ideal location for colonization.

Appearances can be deceiving, however. The leviathan's senses revealed that the planet was populated by an unbelievably large amount of animal life. With their accelerated metabolisms by vespene gas, the beasts below were able to grow and reproduce at astonishing rates. Of course, all this activity requires an immense energy from food. While Zerg solved this food problem by drawing nutrition from creep, these animals didn't have that luxury. Instead, they had to eat each other. As a result, competition was fierce, in spite of the sheer size of the populations, and natural selection progressed much faster than it normally would on other worlds. Abathur was already rubbing his hands in anticipation. Below him was a treasure trove of genetic information. Who knows what he could learn from it?

Kerrigan, however, wasn't so pleased. Her intent was to conquer the planet, but she really didn't know how to do that apart from landing and killing anything that moved. In some ways, conquering a planet of non-sentient animals is much harder than conquering one owned by sentient beings. There was no central ruler to assassinate, no government to overthrow, and no capital city that could be occupied. They couldn't reason with the animals, or break their morale. Conquering an entire planet is not like taking a city or occupying a colony. The only way to take control is to flush the enemy out, nest by nest, burrow by burrow. A process that would consume an annoyingly large amount of time. Time they didn't have. For all they knew, the Protoss could be hot on their tails. Still, it would be good practice in the art of conquering planets. Kerrigan doubted this would be the last.

Tai showed up after his daily check-up on the Protoss prisoners. "If I ever get it in my head to start a bed-and-breakfast on Auir, please stop me."

"I take it that the Protoss still hate us?" Kerrigan had hoped that by now they would have at least given her a chance. Maybe they needed more time, or at least some proof that she wasn't the Queen of Blades any longer.

"Yes, they do. For a supposedly highly advanced culture, they are completely incapable of uttering the words 'thank you' when someone makes you a bathtub. I mean, I'm no Protoss, but I'm sure even they understand the concept of gratitude. Anyway, enough with my moaning, I think there's a planet that needs our attention…"

"I suppose. It is a beautiful planet, isn't it?" The former ghost said, mostly to herself. "Almost feel bad about infesting it…" Hunting down wildlife was dirty business, but it was still a sterile task compared to fighting sentient beings like the Terrans and Protoss.

"You may reconsider when you go down and explore the planet." Izsha reported. "Wildlife analysis complete. Most lifeforms are concentrated around the lava flows. Concentrations of vespene gas, both pure and impure, are higher than average here as well. This confirms the hypothesis that vespene gas causes super-growth of local organisms."

"What about the rest of the planet? Not nearly as much life there, as far as I can tell."

"Correct, mistress. The vespene deposits on this planet are mostly found near the edges of tectonic plates. The rest is little more than solid slabs of bedrock."

"Strong enough to resist bombardment, at least temporarily?" Above all, Kerrigan felt the Zerg needed a more permanent residence.

"Probably, yes. Do you wish to create an underground hive cluster similar to the one on Kaldir?"

"If possible. We might need a place to hide if someone finds us too soon. Za'gara, could you take your brood down and make sure that hive gets build up?"

The broodmother stepped forward somewhat uneasily. "You…entrust this task to me?"

"Yes, I'm giving you a longer leash. Try not to abuse it, I have better things to do than to kick your ass a second time. Can you do it?"

The broodmother thought for a second. "I believe this is possible. However, I would be able to complete this task much more efficiently if I had a large supply of biomass and vespene gas to fuel the construction effort."

Kerrigan turned to Izsha. "One moment, mistress. Scan complete. There is a fault line not far from your preferred location. Several large deposits of gas are present. Unfortunately, there are nests build near the geysers. It is likely that the creatures there feed on it for sustenance."

"Let me guess, the richer the deposit, the larger the population defending it."

"Correct, mistress."

"Well, thanks Izsha. I bet they're vicious predators too, right? It would just be too convenient if they were fluffy, adorable bunnies…"

"Unless you believe that cuteness can somehow be weaponized, I fail to see why you would even wish to bother with such 'bunnies'." Abathur stated. "However, I discovered a creature that may aid us greatly in the future." The chief geneticist showed her mental images of a creature that somewhat resembled a winged scorpion. It could fly through the air and had a tentacle-like feature strong enough to pull other animals up from the ground, allowing it to feed without even landing. Kerrigan's mind quickly went through dozens of tactical scenarios where an ability like this could be useful. Artillery or mech hiding behind bunker lines could be neutralized before they could chew up the main Zerg army. Vulnerable war machines could be pulled away from defensive positions and into an approaching swarm. She found herself becoming strangely excited by the prospect of infesting this species, in much the same way she once got excited about her commanding officer bringing her a new gun. "I knew this would be more to your liking, my queen." Abathur must have picked up on her feelings. Kerrigan realized she had to be a little more careful in showing her emotions in the future. Better yet, she might want to consider putting a lid on her emotions altogether. They could easily be (mis-)interpreted as weaknesses. "The creatures appear to have a social structure akin to hive-based insect species: A society of drones ruled by a small caste of fertile females, or 'queens' to use the Terran term. Acquiring a few of them intact would allow me to breed enough test subjects for my experiments."

"Very well then, I'll go down there myself and fetch our…testing material."

With that, she made her way to the leviathan's sacs. Landing a few clicks away from their target, the Zerg quickly set up a small hive before landing in full force. Once they were confident enough that they had the forces to take control of the surrounding area, they struck. Overlords led their forces in all directions away from the insertion point, razing whatever they could and clearing the way for queens and drones to set up new hives at easily defendable or resource rich locations. As a result, the Swarm quickly snowballed in size. Before long, the target was within their sights and they had the forces to take it.

Finally, Kerrigan thought, a proper objective. Being a ghost, her missions rarely involved large-scale combat. Ghosts were always given a single target and orders to eliminate them. Theatre-wide warfare was generally left to actual officers, not assassins. A nice, simple mission would always be a welcome distraction. While Kerrigan had become quite adept at the mental multitasking that was controlling an army hyper-evolved alien monsters, it was always nice to temporarily shift the burden onto someone else and focus on the one thing she did best: breaking into places she wasn't supposed to. The Overlords were smart enough to handle most of the battles themselves, especially with their recent boost intelligence.

Under the cover of a flock of corruptors, Kerrigan and her underlings marched onto the largest of the nests. Before long, a tide of the scorpion-like beasts sallied forth to meet them. Believing the corruptors to be the greatest threat, the creatures engaged their air-borne opponents, attempting to rip them to shreds with their powerful claws and teeth. The corruptors were resilient and had the advantage of range, but they had trouble shooting down their quick and agile opponents. Slowly but surely, the flock was wearing down. Kerrigan had planned for this, however. Corruptors were meant to take down capital ships, not enemy fighters, so she asked Abathur to bring back an old creature from the Zerg's genetic 'archive': Scourge. These living homing missiles had become largely obsolete after the Brood War when the Protoss had developed the Phoenix and the Terrans upgraded their ships with proper anti-missile machine-gun batteries. These beasts, however, didn't have those advantages.

Legions of scourge, spawned from the freshly-made hive cluster and, flew forth and engaged their enemies. As agile as the Swarm's opponents were, they were no match for the speed and 'skill' of their suicidal pursuers. The skies turned red as the gruesome aerial ballet reached its crescendo. Corruptors pirouetted about, trying to get the beasts in their crosshairs. Their opponents tried to dodge the firepower of the Zerg while at the same time clawing away at their enemies in any way they could. The scourge danced between them, ramming into their foes or exploding right before them, covering their targets in a mist of burning plasma. Many corruptors fell from the sky, their wounds becoming too much for them to bear, but the scorpion-like beasts fared worse. Some were torn in half by a direct hit from the scourge, others were riddled with projectiles fired from the corruptors. After a few hours, the beasts panicked and tried to flee. Kerrigan, unwilling to let them escape to cause trouble later, ordered their pursuit. Regardless of what happened to the stranglers, the damage was done. The road to the main nest was clear.

The nest itself was housed in a massive vespene geyser. Kerrigan slowly walked through the wide corridors, ready to hit anything that would jump out of the shadows with the force of a telekinetic freight train. Closely following her were Tiberias, gun in hand, and Larry, both extremely paranoid of the strange shapes in the vespene vapors. Behind them was a small contingent of Zerg led by several queens, latter of which carried a series of parasites that were supposed to pacify their objectives and bring them under the Swarm's control. Soon, the group reached a central chamber of sorts which housed about half a dozen of the scorpion-like beasts. They seemed different than the others, however. They were much larger and with a large, swollen abdomen. Their wings seemed far too small to allow such a creature to properly fly. On the whole, they seemed hopelessly weak and defenseless.

Upon seeing the intruders, the creatures began to hiss and scream, clumsily lashing out at the Zerg. Kerrigan managed to calm them down with her telepathic abilities. While outright mind control was difficult, even when used on a non-sentient animal, suggestion wasn't. She managed to 'convince' the creatures that the Zerg were their children and that all was well, a relatively simple feat for a psychic of her caliber. Thinking that there was nothing wrong, the beasts allowed the Zerg to approach them, enabling the queens to do what they did best.

"You know," Said Cain, "we really need to come up with a name for these things. Even if the Protoss know they exist, I doubt they'd have bothered naming them. Creativity isn't really their thing."

"I suppose. You have something in mind?"

"Well, they have snake-like bodies, slimy skin, and a tendency to sink their teeth into passers-by before swallowing them whole…"

"How about 'Vipers'? A type of snakes found on Earth?"

"I was thinking along the line of 'lawyers', but I suppose 'Viper' is a bit more appropriate."

Kerrigan felt the 'viper's' minds as the parasites began to take hold of them. She couldn't help but feel a sense of pride. Within a day, she'd set up a sizable hive cluster, secured the mother of all vespene geysers, and assimilated a new species into the Swarm. A job well done, as far as she thought.


	37. Chapter 37

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

Kerrigan strolled through the central hives as the sun set upon the surface of Marrakesh. As a Zerg, she'd never need to sleep, but she felt there was something peaceful in lying down and looking at the stars. Most of the time.

Today, however, was a little different. Even though she couldn't see it with her eyes, there was something in the deep, just beyond her sight. Was it the Protoss, or was this shadow cast by the advancing hybrid army? Impossible to tell. The uncertainty of what lay ahead was another thing on a long list of frustrations that plagued the former Queen of Blades. Having to prepare for war can be challenging enough when you know your enemy, but trying to fight an opponent that is little more than a ghost is infuriatingly difficult. All she really knew about the hybrids were what she could gather from a couple of small ones in test tubes and Tai's account about an adult. Far too little for a commando: in her line of work, a single shred of intel could mean the difference between a flawless execution of a mission and death. Even Abathur had trouble finding anything resembling a weakness. The only advice he could give on the matter could be summarized as 'shoot it until it stops moving'.

The hybrids weren't the only threat on the horizon, however. The Protoss and the Terrans would find them here eventually, but Kerrigan was quite sure she would be ready for them. Za'gara's brood would have the first subterranean ready before the end of the week with more to follow soon after. The primary hive cluster was already the size of a small city and the Zerg had taken control of a territory the size of a continent. Spore cannons dotted the landscape, ready to blast invading starships out of the sky if they got too close to the planet. Unlike the ones that defended Char, these cannons were placed inside the hives rather than scattered about erratically. That way, ground teams wouldn't be able to destroy them without cutting through the Zerg's defenses first. Kerrigan actively wondered why no one realized sooner that placing high-value targets in such vulnerable positions was a bad idea…

While even the Zerg need time to set up defenses, they moved much more quickly than their Terran or Protoss counterparts ever could. At the rate things were going, Marrakesh would be as well-fortified as Char ever was before the end of the month. The Queen wasn't satisfied, however. Char fell to an invasion, and there was no reason to think this planet would fare any better. Already, Izsha had leviathans look for another world to settle, in case the Swarm needed a place to fall back to. Kaldir was too dangerous to return to any time soon: a Protoss fleet arrived soon after the Zerg had left. While they didn't find the hidden hives, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out who was responsible for the slaughter there. Once they figured out that the Zerg were still a real threat, they would inevitably redouble their efforts to find them. Unlike the Terrans, most of whom weren't completely unreasonable if you have the likes of Raynor and Warfield vouching for you, the Protoss would probably never listen to her and they had the power to burn Zerg colonies from orbit. If they did, the Swarm's numbers would mean little.

The Protoss capital ships were always a problem. Engaging them in space was near impossible. The Protoss armada could simply warp in right above the planet and tear the Zerg fliers apart. Their fighters could easily intercept and destroy the relatively slow-moving spore cannon projectiles. The Swarm would need a new strategy to deal with them. Tiberias thought he had a solution to the problem and had been working on it for quite a while. Kerrigan, curious to see if his labors bore any fruit, set out to find him.

She found him in a large, dome-like structure that looked like a Terran observatory. Inside, she found a huge, 20 meter long tube of sorts, securely fastened to the rest of the structure by a seemingly ridiculous amount of support beams. It was a cannon, no doubt about it. In a corner stood Cain and a queen, probably discussing how to make it work.

"Thousands of years of engineering knowledge, acquired from countless species, and your solution to our problems is 'build a giant gun'." Kerrigan said, quite amused. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you're compensating for something..."

"Very funny, my lady." He answered with a dash of annoyance in his voice. Of course, Kerrigan thought: boys and their guns. He could be so amusingly human sometimes. "Freudian psychology aside, guns happen to be very useful when you want to make something on the other side of town explode. Or in this case, on the other side of the star system, if the calibration runs are correct..."

"Specifications?"

"This, my lady, is a telekinesis-powered mass driver, capable of accelerating a five kilogram projectile up to 5% the speed of light. It has near perfect accuracy and, thanks to our dear friend Sir Isaac Newton and his first law of motion, near infinite range once the bullet clears the atmosphere. Even the Protoss with their fancy purification beams can't hide from this thing. As long as they stay out of the atmosphere, we'll be able to shoot them down with ease." The infested Terran's ego seemed to grow with every word. If it grew any bigger, they might need a larger dome.

"There's a but, isn't it? There's always a but."

"Well, they need quite a lot of energy to fire, but that isn't a problem here. Also, we can only hit things in space. If we aim the thing down to hit a target in low orbit, the recoil will probably wreck the whole structure. The supports around us aren't for show, you know."

"If nothing else, we can at least prevent them from glassing the planet from orbit. Well done, Tai. Make sure a few get put up around the planet when we have some resources to spare."

"Thank you, my lady! I'll get to it at once!"

Kerrigan wasn't sure if this 'mass driver' would be enough to hold the Protoss fleet off, but at the very least it would punish them for trying. It would still be a good idea to come up with an escape plan and some secondary colonies, just in case. Anyhow, the idea of having the big guns on her side would, metaphorically, make her sleep a little better at night.

She left Cain to his engineering project and walked towards the edge of the hive cluster. The star-lit forests of Marrakesh greeted her, clearly visible to her in spite of the night, or the lack of moons. Not that there was much too see anyway: the Zerg had long since killed or captured every living thing in the area. There might be a few small pockets of resistance left on the planet, maybe even a few that required her personal intervention, but nothing that could actually force the Zerg off this world. For the moment, they were safe.

She let her body fall down onto the creep and started to think. About the future, about the Protoss, about Mengsk, and how she would...

Kerrigan hit herself in the head, trying to force the thought out of her mind. She couldn't think about Mengsk, not here and now. She promised Jim she'd do something about her anger issues, but thinking about the monster responsible for her predicament was too much to bear. She didn't like being angry like that. It would only cause more harm than good, to herself, to the Zerg, to Jim... Calming herself down before she really lost it, she took her mind to more pleasant places.

Like Jim. Kerrigan wondered how he was doing. Knowing Raynor, she probably didn't have to worry about him...

**Dead Man's Rock**

Screwed.

If there ever was a word that so fully described Jim Raynor's situation, that would be it.

They were completely, utterly, and totally screwed.

Being cut off from the Hyperion was bad. Being stranded on a hostile planet was really bad. Being chased by a someone who'd make a Protoss templar seem open-minded is a one-way trip to the grave. With only a few dozen men at his disposal, his situation was becoming more precarious by the day. The train they were on may be difficult to track underground, but it would only be a matter of time until someone found them and would sick the Dominion on to them. As desperate as things had become, he wouldn't show it to the men. He couldn't. Commanding men for four years had taught Raynor that as long as he appeared confident, the men would follow.

Falling into despair wouldn't help much anyway. The Raiders had been in tighter spots than this and survived. Matt and Warfield were still out there with the fleet. They would come and get them sooner or later. All Raynor had to do was keep himself and as many of his men alive for as long as possible. He would never die on them. He couldn't do that to his men, or to Sarah. To survive, he 'requisitioned' a train and got directions for some good hiding spots from a few local mercs after he slipped them a few credits. Apparently there was an abandoned factory complex or something not very far away: an excellent place for the Raiders to hide, at least for a little while. Factories were generally easy to defend with a small, agile force and they wouldn't have to worry so much about collateral damage or civilian casualties, the factors that made urban warfare so undesirable for freedom fighters. Still, stealth was their best defense right now, so Raynor ordered the train to make several detours and stops to throw the Dominion off. With some luck, the enemy would have forgotten about them and move on. Raynor and his men just had to dig in and sit tight.

Or at least they would, had the facility been intact when they arrived. Instead of a factory, they found a smoldering crater. Instead of machines and cover, they found burnt rock and ash. Instead of security, they found even more death. It was obvious that the Dominion did it, but Raynor couldn't understand why. What could they possibly have to gain from bombing this place? Why bomb it before the Raiders arrived? There was nothing here, right? As they walked about the blast site in the feint hope of finding anything of value, one of the marauders found a piece of metal with a symbol on it. The symbol of the Moebius Foundation...

Raynor was no mathematician, but even he knew that 'Moebius Foundation' and 'nuclear strike' generally equaled 'bad news' and 'run for your life'. He and his men unanimously agreed to perform a tactical advance towards the rear, i.e. jumping back on the train and running like hell. If anything somehow survived the blast that leveled this place, they did not want to meet it.

Having cleared the ruined facility, the Raiders decided to try their luck elsewhere. Returning to Deadman's Port seemed like a reasonable idea. Another well-armed paramilitary force in a city populated by well-armed paramilitary forces would probably go unnoticed by the Dominion. As his officers discussed the details, Raynor decided he needed a cold one and walked down to the storage car to fetch himself a beer.

The storage car itself was an old freight car that should have been decommissioned a long time ago. Most of the lights stopped working, forcing the Raiders to use their suit lights to find their way. As a result, the car had a reputation of being haunted. Superstitious nonsense, of course. Still, when one of the soldiers thought he heard footsteps, the men were certain that they'd picked up a hitchhiker. No one had actually seen anything, but rumors die hard. Raynor didn't listen to them, though. He had seen enough horrors to know an old wife's tale when he heard one. If there was anything on board that wanted to eat their brains, it would have made its move already.

As he turned around a corner, he found himself staring into a pair of blue, glowing eyes. Only two words came to the commander's mind:

"Not again…"


	38. Chapter 38

**Train, Dead Man's Rock**

Raynor stood face-to-face with the creature. Both of them were frozen in place. He didn't dare make the first move. The creature in front of him was, unmistakably, a Protoss/Zerg hybrid, just like the one on Castanar. Sure, it was much smaller than its counterpart, being only about the size of an adult human, but that didn't make it any less dangerous. Sure, it looked battered, burned, and beaten, but the Castanar monster was able to shrug of grenades and impaler fire like it was nothing. Even if this creature was only a fraction of the Castanar beast's strength, Raynor's chances looked bleak.

The rebel commander went through his options. He could reach his side arm and get a shot or two off before the thing could close the distance between them, but there was no guarantee that it would incapacitate the creature. Heck, it might just make it really angry and even more determined to eat his face. He could try to use his radio, but his men were scattered throughout the train. They wouldn't get here in time to save the commander. Maybe he could try to reason with it, but he had no idea if it was in the mood for talking. What would he have to say? What does one say to the herald of the apocalypse? More importantly, is the damn thing even capable of communicating?

As the two stood for several minutes, the questions in Raynor's head began to multiply. What did it want? If it was here to kill him, wouldn't it have done so already? Instead, the creature just stood there, its eyes darting around the room, appearing almost…nervous. It didn't look like it wanted to kill him…On reflection, the creature didn't really look that threatening at all. Its stance seemed more akin to someone getting ready to flee rather than fight. Unlike the Castanar beast, this thing wasn't particularly muscular. The scales on its body didn't look fully formed yet and its claws and talons were comparatively small, giving it a slightly 'childish' appearance. The only thing that looked remotely powerful enough to cut through the commander's armor were the creature's two (relatively) large hydralisk-like scythe blades that it was holding in front of itself like a shield. Given the creature's demeanor, though, a security blanket might be a better term. The more Raynor looked at it, the less threatening the creature appeared. While he knew better than to judge by appearances alone, he couldn't help but wonder if this creature was really as dangerous as thought it was at first.

To Raynor, it seemed like this was the young version of the Castanar hybrid. Why would anyone send a frightened child after him? Didn't they have any adults available? He wasn't exactly the most dangerous man in the sector, but even his enemies should have thought more of him than to believe he could be put down by this…thing. All in all, the creature appeared more like a refugee trying to hitch a ride than a badass assassin.

Then, the commander had an epiphany. What if it _was_ a hitchhiker? What if the creature was an escapee that somehow got on the train when it was at the Moebius facility? Moebius was breeding hybrids in other places and that lunatic Dominion general seemed like the kind of guy who would have no problem using nuclear weapons to remove a potential alien infestation. This thing could just be a survivor looking for shelter. For the first time since he laid eyes on the creature, Raynor scanned his surroundings. Several of the storage crates were smashed open. Maybe it was looking for food? If it was, it should have checked the other side of the car. Beer, bullets and stimpacks were enough to keep a marine going, but they probably weren't sufficient for a Protoss/Zerg hybrid.

The commander slowly reached into his left pocket. The hybrid let out a half terrified/half threatening hiss, but Raynor kept going regardless. Out of his pocket, he grabbed a ration bar, opened it up and held it in front of him. He kept his right hand on his side arm. If he was wrong, he could still put the barrel against its head and blow it off. The creature looked at him inquisitively, seemingly conflicted between its fear and its hunger. Raynor cursed himself. What the hell was he thinking, trying to bribe a monster with a bloody candy bar?! This would never work!

The creature walked towards him, snatched the ration bar out of his hand and took a few steps back. It looked at its prize for a while, before swallowing it whole. The thing was certainly hungry…

Raynor had to choose his next move carefully. He cautiously took a few steps towards the hybrid, trying not to startle it. The creature allowed him to come closer but was still a little suspicious. The commander carefully took out another ration bar and gave it to the hybrid. Apparently that was enough to convince the creature that it wasn't going to get hurt. The commander could hardly believe how easy it was to bribe. It slowly walked towards him, allowing the commander to inspect its wounds. Raynor wasn't an expert on hybrid physiology (assuming such a person even existed), but he knew critical injuries when he saw them. The creature looked like it needed some form of medical attention. Calling over the medic wouldn't be much of a problem, but the commander wasn't sure if he should help the hybrid out at all. It did, after all, belong to a species which Zeratul said would cause the end of all life in the sector. On the other hand, if you are going to judge someone by the damage they could one day cause in the future, you might as well kill every human in the sector while you're at it. Everyone has the potential to turn into a monster, just like everyone has the potential to turn into a saint. Raynor would be damned if he was going to judge people based solely on that. Not to mention that they could learn so much from a live hybrid. He knew Stetmann would jump at the opportunity to look at one. If they could find something that would help them against the hybrids in the future, it would be well worth carrying this one around for now.

Raynor decided to take the leap of faith. He grabbed his radio and said: "Harvey, I made a new friend down in the car we use for storage. I want you to meet him. Oh, and bring Kat too, I think he may need a little medical attention." He hoped the faith he was putting in the creature would be vindicated.

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

Kerrigan's rest was interrupted by a rather surprising guest. She noticed the shape of a Protoss moving towards her, shadowed by a roach. The two sat down next to each other while an uncomfortable silence filled the air.

Kerrigan decided to speak up first. "Lassara. Surprised to see you here…"

"The feeling is mutual, Queen of the Zerg." The Protoss replied. "I have always been told that your kind do not need to sleep."

"We don't, but that doesn't mean we can't take a break every now and then. We've been quite busy, in case you didn't notice."

"Indeed. Busy consuming this world, devouring its inhabitants and desecrating their remains to procreate yourselves. A noble task, if I may say so. One that your slaves are preforming quite admirably."

Lassara's thinly disguised hatred was abundantly clear. Kerrigan knew full well that it would be a waste of time to explain her actions to her 'prisoner'. Even if she told her about the prophecy, Lassara would call it a lie. Apart from Jim and a handful of others, who would? It was unbelievable enough without it having to come from the former Queen of Blades.

"Those 'slaves' happen to feed you and give you everything you need. You should be a little nicer to them. Take Tai, for instance. He spent hours working on your pool filter, and you haven't even thanked him."

"Given what your kind has done to mine, I am entitled to a great deal more before I owe you anything, oh Queen of Blades." The Protoss' tone was direct and harsh, just as it has always been.

"I suppose you're not entirely wrong about that. Still, I've been a lot nicer to you than most in my position would be. Could you at least do me a favor and stop calling me 'Queen of Blades'? Just 'Kerrigan' would be fine."

"Why not? You were quite fond of your little title before."

"Maybe, but I'm not that person anymore. I'd rather not be reminded of her."

The Protoss sneered. "Do you believe that you can make your sins go away by denying they ever happened? That changing your hide would absolve you? If you do, you are more of a fool than I expected."

"Do you know what it's like, Lassara, to be a prisoner in your own mind? To wake up one day and realize that you're the greatest mass-murderess in human history? Trust me, it's not what I'd call good fun. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies. I'm fully aware of the atrocities I've committed and of the fact that the Protoss will never forgive me, no matter what I do. The only thing I'm asking of you is to try and understand that I'm trying to leave that life behind me. All I ever wanted was a normal, human life and yet, the universe seems to try very hard to make sure that never happens." Kerrigan didn't even know why she was confessing this to the Protoss. Still, it was better than bottling her feelings up or telling one of the Zerg about them.

"But you are here, amassing an army and reclaiming your swarm. I know little of Terran culture, but I'm sure ruling the Swarm is not a common pastime amongst them."

"If I don't reunite the Swarm, someone else will. Someone who could be a lot less nice than I am. All it takes for the bad guys to win is for the good people to sit back and do nothing. My actions have caused enough damage as they are. I won't let my inaction cause even more." The Queen neglected to say anything about the hybrids. It would have been pointless anyway.

The Protoss looked at the sky for a while before pointing at the shadow of one of the fliers. "That creature. I do not recognize it. What is it?"

"What, the viper? Oh, they're our newest acquisitions. Assimilating them was quite a handful, but I think it's absolutely worth it." Kerrigan noticed she sounded like a saleswoman. Still, there was nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments, however grotesque your methods may have been. At least, that's what she felt…

"I see. For someone determined to change herself, your actions give me an eerie sense of what the Terrans call 'déjà vu'. You claim you are no longer the Queen of Blades, but I cannot help but wonder how much of her still lies within you."

"What do you mean?" She knew she didn't want to hear the answer. Part of her already knew what it was.

"It takes either rot or steel to willingly destroy an entire species and here you are, ordering the destruction of an entire planet as if it was nothing. The creatures of this place, while feral and dangerous, do not deserve the fate you have forced upon them. Whatever quarrel you may have, they have no part in it, yet you consume them without a second thought. You annihilate them to increase your own power. Tell me, Kerrigan, what reason do you have to undertake such a slaughter?"

"Self-preservation, Lassara. Call me unsympathetic or selfish, but I care more for my life, and that of my friends than I do for the lives of a few animals. Maybe it's just the ghost training talking, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs."

"Perhaps. Still, you said that you lament your fate, yet you willingly, knowingly infested these creatures. You take away their free will, enslave them, imprison them within their own minds as you have been. Your worst enemies are exempt from such a fate, but they are not. From my perspective, the line between you and the Queen of Blades has become very thin indeed…"

Kerrigan didn't have anything to say to that. She was right. The Queen wanted to rip her guts out for saying it, but she was right. How many small atrocities could Kerrigan still get away with? How many more before she truly crossed the line? Admittedly, trying to save the sector would give her some moral leeway, but it wouldn't last forever.

Lassara had already left, probably worried that Kerrigan might lose it and kill her. The queen would never do that; it would only prove that her enemies right about her all along. Still, she had a lot of thinking to do.

This was going to be a long night for her…


	39. Chapter 39

**Train, Dead Man's Rock**

"With all due respect, sir, you're insane." The Raider lieutenant stared back and forth between the hybrid and the commander, seemingly wondering which one he should punch silly.

"Harvey, it hasn't done anything wrong yet. Try not to prejudge."

"I'm a soldier, sir. Prejudging is what has kept me alive for the past four years we've been working together."

"The thing is barely sentient. What's it going to do?"

"Eat our brains and lay its eggs in our eye sockets?"

The commander sighed. This was going to get difficult. "Okay, you've prejudged. Look, we've made stranger alliances than this. Take the Tassadar and his Protoss, for instance. I took a leap of faith, you, along with a lot of other people, protested, and we ended up saving the day. If we hadn't trusted them because they've been burning our planets, where would we be today?"

"With all due respect sir, our alliances tend to have fifty percent chance of biting us in the ass. Case in point: Brood War era Zerg and the Dominion a few weeks ago."

"Right now, the Zerg are on our side…"

"…for now." Harvey interrupted.

"…and our little run if with the Dominion got us a load of new recruits, including a Dominion general."

"Maybe so, but that doesn't make this hybrid any less dangerous to us. Didn't _you_ say they were going to cause Armageddon? Why the change of heart?"

"The guy pulling the hybrid's strings is going to cause Armageddon, not necessarily the hybrids themselves. If they're all like this, they ain't going to be much of a treat on their own. I mean, look at him! He's hardly more intelligent than a child. Hey, hybrid! Bob you head up and down if you understand me." The creature merely looked at him quizzically. "See, damn thing can't outsmart a piece of aluminum foil!"

"So you think. Doesn't change the fact that we still have an enfant terrible on board. Not understanding English is hardly a point in its favor. From where I stand, it's a time bomb, sir. We should put a bullet in its head and burn the body. No harm, no foul."

"Apart from the fact that we're murdering an innocent being. I don't know about you, but I can't honestly call myself better than the Dominion if we run around shooting random people because it makes me sleep better at night. Can you?"

Harvey looked the creature in the eye. The commander was right about one thing: it didn't look very threatening. "Low blow, sir. Still, war is hell and it's a risk you know we can't take."

Raynor was becoming very annoyed at this current right-hand man. "Okay, how about this: what do you think a live hybrid would mean to Stetmann? We'll be fighting more of these things and we'll need to have every shred of intel we can get. We might just learn everything we need to know from examining this little guy right here."

"Still, is it worth the risk?"

The commander shook his head. "If it gets out of line, I'll shoot it myself."

"Hopefully before it has had a second helping of my spine." Harvey sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to win this fight. Raynor could always just pull rank and Harvey was a good soldier. Never question your commander in the field: it leads to doubt, which leads to mistrust, which leads to a squad that can't fight effectively. "I'll let the men know of your decision. Just know, when this thing turns on us, you owe me five credits." With that, he left.

That went easier than expected. Raynor had thought that he would have to bark orders and force his men to go along with this. He even feared for a mutiny. Admittedly, there was something strangely disarming about the creature. The commander found it difficult to really be afraid of it. Then again, he had fought the Zerg for four years. It's hard to be afraid of anything when you are used to fighting them…

Kat had remained silent, inspecting the hybrid creature. Raynor looked at them for a while before speaking up.

"So, doctor, what's the prognosis?"

The medic shot him a death glare. "Boss, do you even know what that word means? Anyhow, what makes you think I can solve our friend's problems? I don't even know what the damn thing is supposed to look like!"

"Well, you're a medic, can't you fix him up or something?"

"You think I can just aim my surgical laser at you and your wounds magically heal themselves?" The commander shrugged in response. "God, you knuckleheads have no respect! When am I going to get some appreciation around here?! We save your asses, are always the first ones to get shot, and this is the thanks we get?! Anyway, surgery is a _very_ complicated procedure. It took five years of medical school and three years of combat training for me to get it right!" Kat was, once again, very annoyed. Raynor always thought that medics were supposed to be caring types. Then again, he could understand someone getting upset if their skills are so underappreciated.

"Okay…so, what's wrong with him?"

"Haven't you been listening!" The medic yelled. "I have no idea! How could I, I'm a human doctor, not a veterinarian. It could be missing two of its legs and I wouldn't be able to tell."

"You've been using your skills on Protoss. You ain't got training for that, but I know there's at least one of them out there who owes you his life…"

"You mean that time when it took me ten minutes to realize I couldn't give the poor bastard mouth-to-mouth breathing? That was just a broken leg and a concussion. The former is a simple, universal procedure, the latter fixed itself."

"Well, I'm sure there is at least one 'simple, universal procedure' that you can use. Just do what you can, that's all I'm asking of ya. Oh, and be sure to take a few ration bars."

"I know I'm annoyingly meticulous, but I'm not that slow." The medic snapped back.

"Not for you, for the hybrid. He likes them. It'll make it easier to get close and examine him."

"Right, he's easy to bribe. I'll keep that in mind." She turned away from the commander and got back to work. Strangely enough, the hybrid allowed her to come close without much fuss. "Now, let's see about you. Aww, look at your back! It's like someone tried to use it as a barbecue! I've got just what you need, sit still." As Kat injected the creature with an anesthetic, it let out a relieved sigh. "See, feels better, doesn't it. You know, we should come up with a name for you. You remind me of my grandfather's dog Stanley: big, stupid, and loyal to the death to whomever gave it a snack. How's that for a name?" The hybrid yelped 'playfully'. "I knew you'd like it, you big bugger. Let's fix up those nasty burns, shall we?"

Raynor left, chuckling. There was the caring motherly medic archetype. Kat seemed to like the hybrid, although she was one of the more trusting of the Raiders. He wasn't sure if he should let the medic talk to him like a dog, though. At least 'Stanley' had managed to win over one of his crew…

**Bucephalus, Outskirts of the Umoja System**

Nova walked through the corridors of the cantankerous vessel. Her mind was still reeling from the images from Valerian's mind, but she couldn't let it get to her. She still had a job to do. Valerian, while inexperienced, seemed like a genuinely good guy who at least tried to act for the greater good of humanity. If she couldn't trust her own judgment, she could always try to trust his.

Given the crown prince's track record, though, she did realize that she'd have to take his advice with a grain of salt…

The ghost made her way to the bridge. She had heard from a crewmember that the crown prince was there. They were heading to the Umoja system, although Nova wasn't entirely sure why. Whatever the reason, she'd probably be needed sooner or later. If nothing else, it could keep her mind away the mess that was going on in her head.

"Ah, Nova. It is good to see you again." The prince said, genuinely trying to maintain a façade of aloofness among the bridge officers. It might have worked on most people, but not on a telepath.

"Likewise, your highness. What are we doing here? I don't think the Umojans will like having the flagship of the Dominion fleet hanging around." Nova's voice had become a whisper, nonverbally indicating that the two could freely talk here.

"They won't, but I pulled some strings. It's good to have friends in high places, especially when said friends owe you a favor or two."

"Still doesn't explain why we're here in the first place."

"You know those messages you couldn't decipher?" Valerian explained. "Well, the analysts had a shot at it and didn't get much further than you did. All we know is that Narud used military grade Umojan encryptions, so I'm trying to get in touch with an expert. He's an old friend of mine who used to work for Protectorate Intelligence. One of the best. He'll have those things cracked open in no time."

"Do you trust him?" Nova asked, skeptically.

"Yes. Well, as long as we're not playing cards with him, anyway."

"Fair enough."

A console started to beep and one of the officers responded: "My lord, we are receiving a transmission. Heavily encrypted and untraceable."

"Put it through." Valerian ordered. "I think that's our man. Oh, and clear the bridge. The matters discussed here are classified."

The sound of footsteps died away after a few minutes. Only Valerian and Nova remained. The static on the console faded, revealing a rough looking man in his sixties. "Well, if it isn't his royal highness, Prince Valerian Mengsk of the Dominion." He said in a hoarse voice thick with mockery. "What did this old man do to be graced by your presence."

"There's no need for titles, Zach. You know I don't like them."

"I bet the delivery didn't help either. Anyway, I bet you ain't here for a social visit, are ya? You dislike me far too much for that. Am I in trouble? Are ya going to make me do something that will get me in trouble?"

"I admit, I'm here on business, not pleasure. That poker rematch will have to wait. I'm transmitting you a series of messages that need decrypting. I want to know what's in them and to whom they were sent. Don't worry, it's an internal Dominion affair. Even if the Protectorate finds out, they won't charge you for treason. Can you do it?"

Zach briefly looked at his screen "Aww, c'mon I thought you had a challenge for me. I'll warm up ol'Bessy for ya and have it done before you know it."

"Ol'Bessy?" Nova asked.

"His supercomputer." The prince replied.

"Right…" The ghost had known this 'Zach' for three minutes and already knew that he was a rather 'unusual' individual.

The man behind the console coughed a few times before saying: "Right, well, that should keep her busy for a few minutes."

"You know, I have a hacking expert on board." Valerian said, pointing at Nova. "If you want, she could help you…"

"Nah, your girlfriend will just get in the way. 'preciate the offer, though."

"She isn't my girlfriend, Zach."

"Really?! Why not? She's quite something to look at, especially in that suit… Doesn't leave much to the imagination, I must say." Nova scowled at him. "Oh come on, sweet-cheeks, I'm giving ya a complement, and you give the death glare? Gosh, Val, you certainly know how to pick'em."

"Coming from the man who had four wives and five divorces?" The crown prince snickered. "No offence, but if I need relationship advice, you're the last person I'd turn to."

"Ouch. Still, I'm telling ya, you need a woman in your life…Ah, great. She'd done already. Let's see what wondrous mysteries…wait, that can't be right."

"What is it? Did you make a mistake?"

Zach sighed. "Val, you know better than to ask stupid questions like that. Your friend has been sending your messages into deep space, using our transmitters. Council ain't gonna like that."

"Why would Narud use their transmitters?" Valerian wondered. "Wouldn't the Dominion transmitters be good enough?"

"Their transmissions are almost impossible to intercept. It's why we've never been able to fully stamp out the protectorate's agents." Nova explained. "Also, the transmitters have a much longer range than ours. They can send a signal to anywhere in the sector if you have the right equipment."

The old man laughed a bit. "Oh, we can send much further than that, assuming you have a receiver that can pick the signal up. It's just that there's no one to transmit to that far out. Or so I thought anyway. The destination is literally in deep space. Dozens of light-years away in a sector we don't even have a name for yet."

"Is it the UED?" Valerian asked. He had always worried that they would one day return. Rumor had it that no ship survived to report back to Earth, so they'd have to come looking for them sooner or later. Still, given the sheer distance between the Koprulu sector and Sol, that could easily be decades away.

"Kid, listen. Whoever it is, it doesn't matter. Lemme tell you something about them transmitters: They can send a signal really far away, but the further you are from the source, the more sensitive your receiver will have to be in order to pick it up. There ain't a receiver in the world that can pick up anything at that range. Not even the Protoss have the tech to make something like that. So unless there is a race of even more super advanced aliens around, I'd say that someone's thrown you a red herring." Valerian cringed. He did _not_ believe this was just a red herring. "Oh god. You think there is a race of even more super advanced aliens around, is there. What do you know? When should I start running?"

"I don't have any hard evidence for such a claim, Zach. Just bad dreams and a gut feeling."

"Hmm, not enough to give to the Council, I think. Not sure if it's enough for me... Anyway, I owe you one, so here are your messages. I'll try to keep my eyes open for any other long range messages like that. Don't like the idea of an outsider using our equipment."

"Thank you, Zach."

"Don't mention it. Oh, do yourself a favor, ask the lady over there out on a date." Zach cut the connection and the screen turned to static before deactivating.

After a few moments of silence, Nova said: "God, what a pig."

"True enough, but a useful one." The crown prince conceded.

"You know he's going to tell his friends about this, right?"

"I'm counting on it. If the Umojans shut down Narud's communication system, it'll force his hand. Whatever plan he's hatched, he'll have to change it and improvise. He'll make a mistake, and when he does, he'll answer to me."

"Assuming that whatever he's got planned isn't already in motion."

Valerian sighed. Nova was right about that. "If that is the case, then I hope we can find Raynor or any of his allies soon. Right now, I think they know better than anyone else what we need to do to get out of this mess."

"Assuming they don't shoot us on sight. Lots of assumptions, very little hard data."

"Well, we can't have everything, now can we? We should leave before the Umojan fleet gets nervous."

On his way out, the crown prince ordered the bridge crew back to his stations and went to his personal quarters. He had some planning to do.


	40. Chapter 40

**Bucephalus, Deep Space**

Valerian's life was a lie. That was the only coherent thought running through his head. His life was a lie. Reading through these notes, he couldn't decide if he should feel anger, betrayal, sorrow, or all of them simultaneously. In the past few weeks, everything he knew was being turned on its head. Now, it all came crashing down.

The decrypted messages on his datapad contained rather standard spy-related things. The kind one would find in a cheesy spy movie: status reports on the 'project', numbers and figures that didn't seem to make a lot of sense, that kind of thing. There wasn't that much new information to be found there. The messages may have been fully decrypted, but without context, they might as well be cake recipes. The one thing they did tell the crown prince is that someone, maybe even more than one, at the Moebius Foundation was a traitor. Not just to Valerian and the Dominion, but probably to the entire human race as well. While Nova had told him that, since they were found on the doctor's computer, Narud was almost certainly involved, Valerian didn't want to believe it. He refused to believe that Dr. Emil Narud, friend, colleague, and mentor would turn his back on his own species.

It wasn't just the messages themselves that pained the crown prince. Their writing and style were more revealing than the content would ever be. Through them, Valerian found out that the writer had not a shred of respect for him. To the writer, Valerian was just a tool. A child that can be pushed around with ease. Someone to turn to when they needed something, nothing more. While the crown prince had never expected Narud to view him as an equal when it came to matters of science, he had always thought of himself as one of the doctor's more promising students. The writer's callous lack of respect shattered that notion, and with it, Valerian's self esteem. He had two great teachers in his life: one he threw in jail, the other thinks he's nothing more than a child. Now, he felt like he had nothing.

Nova entered the room carrying another datapad. She quickly noticed the crown prince's demeanor and slowed her pace. "My lord," She started, trying to sound as respectful as she could. To Valerian, the words seemed hollow, regardless. Right now, he was the last person to deserve a title like that. Still, the thought was appreciated, even if the gift was not. "you asked me and the other intel guys to see if there has been any word from the Raiders. There has."

The crown prince raised his head a little. "Are they still alive?"

"For the moment, your highness."

Valerian sighed in relief. At least one thing had gone right. "What did you find out?"

"The emperor had sent out a fleet under a General Morrigan to hunt down the Zerg Swarm. The fleet couldn't find the Zerg themselves, so they went after their supposed allies and associates. They managed to catch up with the Raiders near Dead Man's Rock and forced them on the run. Right now, they are spread around that region of space trying to find them."

"I see. Wait, General Morrigan? As in Jack Morrigan?"

"Yes, do you know him?" The ghost asked.

"I once asked Warfield where determination ended and zealotry began. He handed me Morrigan's file and said: 'Right there.' If he's after the Raiders or the Zerg, they're in trouble. If his file is anything to go by, he's not the type to sit down and listen to reason. Especially when all we have is a Protoss vision."

"Oh c'mon, he can't be that bad. No one would promote a general that wouldn't reason with anyone. Besides, you're the crown prince. Pull rank!"

Valerian snickered. "You have an awful lot of faith in my political pull, Nova. Fair enough, I'll try to talk him down. We can find them faster with two fleets anyway."

**Bridge, White Star, Dead Man's Rock**

"With all due respect, your highness, but are you raving mad?! I have neither the time nor the inclination to listen to this garbage!" Everyone on the bridge seemed to gasp at the general's last statement. Yes, he was rude and had little respect for authority, but calling the crown prince mad was crazy, even by his standards.

"Oh dear. Okay, have it your way." Valerian sighed. "As Crown Prince of the Dominion and by the authority that is my birthright, I hereby order you to stand down. You are NOT to engage any of the Raiders or the Swarm unless I specifically order you to."

"Reason being?"

"Classified." It was obvious that the crown prince tried to appear as imposing as he could. Morrigan was not impressed.

"Right. Here's my response: Piss off, kid! My orders come directly from your father, so if you have a problem, contact him. The Zerg are a cancer on the galaxy and the Raiders are working for them. I see no reason _not_ to blow they sorry heads off."

"General, there are bigger things at work here. I wouldn't ask this of you if I…"

Morrigan sighed. "Oh my, bigger things? Well, I better forget my orders then and follow you like the good little puppy that I am!" He included a dramatic pause to put some additional weight behind his statement. "Look kid, your old friend General Warfield tried using that joke to try and convince me not to do my job. It didn't work for him, it's not going to work for you." He noticed the surprised look on the prince's face. "Oh, you didn't know? Well, I have a news flash for you: Warfield's alive and he's now working for the Raiders. By extension, that also means he's working for the Queen of Blades. Nice job getting our best general to side with the enemy, your royal highness! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a job to do. You know, what we boring old grown-ups do instead of flying around in our shiny space-ships playing war."

Without another word, the general cut the connection. The entire bridge crew was left speechless. Although he was in his right to do so, they couldn't believe that Morrigan would have the stones to openly disobey a member of the royal family, let alone in such a callous fashion. Valerian was generally well-liked by the people, especially after he had distanced himself from his father after the Tarsonis debacle became public knowledge. Many saw him as a handsome Prince Charming on a white steed, coming to save the day and make everything better. Watching the poor lad being verbally eviscerated by the general did not sit well with the crew.

Turning to one of the men behind the consoles, the general growled: "Lieutenant, I believe you had a status report from the Third, right?"

One of the officers broke out of his reverie and said: "Eh, yes sir, right here. The third has yet to locate the Raiders, but they managed to find a potential secondary target on the surface of a planet designated L-540."

"Let me see." Morrigan grabbed the datapad and closely inspected the report. His eyes slowly widened as he read it. "Captain, contact the fourth wing, tell them to stay put and exterminate the last of the Raiders here. I'm taking the first and second to L-540. We may just have a big problem. A really, big problem."

**Bucephalus, Deep Space**

"Well, just what this day was missing. Emasculation by one of our top generals. How wonderful." Valerian stated, dryly.

Nova simply looked at the empty screen in disbelief. "I can't believe he'd say that in right in your face. Turns out you were right about him. Just doesn't seem like the emperor to send a whack job to hunt down the most dangerous enemy the Dominion has. He must be really, really good."

"I'm sure he is, Nova. That's what scares me the most about him." The crown prince knew that if the emperor was willing to use people like that, he must be getting really desperate.

"What do we do, now?" The ghost asked.

"Let's keep tabs on him. If the Raiders are still on the loose, we might just have a chance to help them solve this mess. Even if we don't find them, Morrigan certainly will. Suffice to say that I'd rather get them first."

"And when we find the Raiders, what do we do? Put on your biggest smile and say you're sorry?"

"Pretty much." Valerian shrugged. "If the hybrids are as bad as I think, we'll need more than half of the Char invasion fleet to stop them."

"With all due respect, my lord, Raynor doesn't strike me as a man easily swayed by your princely charms. Especially after what happened the last time he trusted you…"

"I'd be disappointed if he was." The crown prince stared out of the window and into the void. "I guess I'll just have to think of something clever when the time comes."

"You're not exactly sounding confident, sire."

"Because I'm not, Nova." He walked out the room, thinking.

Nova had become seriously concerned about him. His youthful arrogance had all but disappeared over the past few weeks, his naïve confidence replaced with doubts and fears. She wasn't sure if the prince was mentally strong enough to undertake a venture like this, especially if events took a turn for the worse. Somehow, deep in her guts, she knew that things were going to get even worse. Probably another psychically-induced gut feeling. Unfortunately, her gut had rarely been wrong.

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

Kerrigan had been pleased with the progress her Zerg have been making. When the first subterranean hive had been completed, the Zerg's expansion rate began to grow exponentially. Most of the larger nests on the planet had already been destroyed. Some she had taken out herself, others were simply overrun by the Swarm. Over a third of the planet had been colonized already and more hives were added to the cluster every hour. Two more leviathans had hatched, expanding Kerrigan's 'fleet' to five. Defensive emplacements were scattered all around the planet, turning the world into a fortress. Part of her wanted the Protoss to come, just so that they could test their new defenses. That specific part was often chastised by the rest of her. She didn't want to kill any more than she needed to. That was the line she was drawing for herself. No unnecessary kills. No needless bloodlust.

With Marrakesh largely secured, Kerrigan had turned her attention to the stars and any other broods that may still be alive. Between the Protoss fleets, the inevitable Terran assaults and their own infighting, the Queen feared that their search might come up empty. Nevertheless, she kept searching, knowing that every additional brood she could find would help out tremendously.

Entering the leviathan that she had used as her 'flagship' for the past few weeks, she went to Izsha to discuss the matter.

"Izsha, have you found anything yet? I'm beginning to wonder if there are any Zerg left the sector…"

"There are always the unclaimed broods on Aiur, mistress. We could always recover those…"

"No, too dangerous. I don't want to tick of the Protoss and going to their homeworld won't make them like us any better."

"As you wish." Izsha continued on in her usual monotone. "Our search has been successful to some extent, mistress. I have located another brood: the Me'dea brood on a planet designated by the Terrans as L-540. It is a planet quite rich in minerals on the edge of Dominion space."

"Let me guess, it has a colony, and now the Terrans are trying to remove our brood…"

"Negative, mistress. The air composition is extremely toxic to humans, making mining operations difficult and not worth the effort. I believe Tiberias would refer to a world like this as a 'pisshole'."

Kerrigan couldn't help but chuckle. "He uses that world to describe a lot of planets, doesn't he?"

"Since the Zerg rarely seek out worlds that are easily habitable by human standards, that would be an accurate assumption. Me'dea was tasked with maintaining one of the last remaining behemoths: enormous transports used by the Swarm to push across deep space. Each was the size of a small city and could potentially house millions of Zerg. They were largely abandoned after the Brood War because they were too expensive and inefficient. The Queen of Blades considered them unfit for battle since they lacked armament and heavy armor."

Suddenly, an idea popped into the queen's mind. "Did she…I…the Queen of Blades ever consider fixing those problems herself? I'm pretty sure we can make a half decent warships out of a behemoth if we add a little armor and a few spore cannons…"

"She…did not." Izsha replied, almost apologetically. "She believed the smaller and faster leviathans to be sufficient."

"Well, I don't. A thing that size could easily be turned into a battleship, or even a mobile hive. I think our lives will be much easier if we could mass-produce Zerg in space rather than build up a hive for every engagement." Not to mention that she wouldn't have to corrupt a continent of territory just to keep her armies going. "I think we should head to our little planet, see what we can find. Have the leviathans load up as many warriors as they can. I want to be ready for anything."

"All of them?" Izsha asked.

"Yes. If it's near the edge of Terran space, I wouldn't be surprised if the humans know about it. I want to be able to fight them off if we can't talk them down. With a bit of luck, we'll have another brood and a free doomship by the end of the week…"


	41. Chapter 41

**Bridge, Hyperion, Deep Space**

General Warfield slowly marched about the bridge. The events on Dead Man's Rock had left everyone on edge. Jim Raynor was a good man, and he did not like leaving good men behind on hostile worlds. Yes, they didn't have a choice. Yes, Raynor himself practically ordered them to retreat. It still felt like a betrayal. While most of the men would agreed with the general, morale was still surprisingly high. Rather than sinking into despair, many of the men had seen Raynor's absence as a reason to work even harder, turning their worries into purpose and hoping that they would get their revenge on the Dominion sooner rather than later.

The bridge officers moved around the room, some even casually saluting the general. Warfield was somewhat surprised at the acceptance the Raiders had shown him and his men. Rather than seeing them as potential backstabbers, the men and women of Raynor's Raiders had treated them as brothers in arms. The integration of Dominion and Raider personnel was almost seamless. Fitting, of course, since many of the Raiders were once Dominion soldiers themselves. Warfield even recognized several of his former officers that had gone AWOL over the past view years.

Warfield's biggest worry, however, was that the Raiders might end up pushing themselves too hard. Captain Horner, in particular, looked exhausted. He had seen the ambush as a personal failure and wanted to do everything he could in an attempt to get the commander back. Their latest plan was to try and find Kerrigan and her Zerg. Together, they would probably have enough firepower to defeat Morrigan's fleet, and, hopefully, free Raynor before the Dominion got to him. However, finding the Zerg was much more difficult than they thought. Having no idea where Kerrigan might have gone, the Raiders decided to visit known Zerg infested planets and hoped she'd reclaimed them. With a bit of luck, they'd be able to contact her through the Zerg. Unfortunately, the Protoss haven't been sitting still the past few weeks. Most the smaller outposts and colonies the Raiders visited had already been put to the torch when they arrived. Many of the Zerg that were still alive turned out to be feral and tried to attack them. Other colonies were completely abandoned, their hives reduced to a dormant state. Over time, many began to wonder if Kerrigan could still be found. If she had fled the sector altogether, they might never be able to find her in time. If she hadn't, there was a good chance that the Protoss would have found her first…

The general really didn't want to consider that possibility. If Raynor was right about the hybrids, Kerrigan's death would mean the end of the sector and everyone in it. That said, it would be hard to ask for her help if the Raiders worked themselves to death first. Horner was leaning on the holographic table, discussing where to go next. Warfield could see the man desperately needed some sleep.

"…no, that planet is too close to Dominion space. They would have bombed it by now. We should find another planet…How about L-540? We should try there…Oh, hello general."

"Captain, how long have you been standing there?"

Horner shook his head, knowing full well where this line of questioning was going. The captain has had similar conversations with Raynor in the past. This time, however, the roles seemed to have reversed. "No, I'm not leaving. Raynor won't be getting much sleep unless we manage to break through that blockade. I don't see why I should be getting any myself."

Warfield sighed. He had seen this before. So many times… "If you don't, you'll collapse from exhaustion. You're not going to help anyone like that, Horner. Get some sleep. We can do without you for a few hours. I would make it an order, if I knew which one of us outranked the other around here. Since I don't, consider it friendly advice."

Matt smiled. He had grown to like the general's fatherly, but firm demeanor. It was good to have him on their side. "Alright, general. XO, take the bridge." As the captain walked out the door, he turned around and asked: "Warfield, could you follow me for a second?"

The general complied. After a few minutes, the two found themselves in an empty corridor. Horner pushed a few buttons on a datapad he had been carrying, locking the doors. "I suppose this is the part of the movie where we worry about whether or not we can succeed, is it? Something you don't want to ask me in front of the men?"

"You read my mind, general." Horner took a deep breath before continuing. "Honestly, I'm not sure if we can find Kerrigan like this. If I were her, I would have left the sector to put as much distance between myself and the people hunting me as possible. We know she has at least one leviathan at her disposal. She could be damn near anywhere by now."

"You're right, but I don't think she'll start rebuilding the Zerg Swarm from scratch. We'll find her when she comes for her broods, I'm sure of it. If she's left, she probably won't go very far from the sector. Not so long as Raynor is still alive."

"Do you really think she still cares about that? I can't shake the feeling that there was something off about her the last time we met."

"Why wouldn't she care? Aren't you supposed to be the optimistic one? I don't know what she was like before, but I know love when I see it. That girl will _not _abandon him, I'm sure of it." At least, Warfield hoped to god she wouldn't.

"I'm not going to pretend I know anything about love, with my…unusual situation, but I'm not convinced. People change, you know. Spend a lot of time in another culture, and they rub off on you. If she retains her humanity while living alongside creatures like the Zerg, then she's strong-willed in a way I can't even imagine being possible."

"Working with ghosts on Project Shadowblade has thought me one thing, captain: Never underestimate the willpower of a psychic." Warfield explained "If she can remain sane while hearing our thoughts, I'm pretty sure she'll be fine living amongst the 'savages'. As long as Raynor is still in the land of the living, she'll be on our side."

"And if he's dead, or even just wounded?" Horner asked.

"Then she'll probably go on something the holos call a 'roaring rampage of revenge'. Let's just say I don't want to be named Mengsk if that were to happen."

The captain shook his head. "If he is hurt, Kerrigan might just topple the entire Dominion to get her revenge. Not even Raynor would be able to convince her not to. A lot of people are going to die if that happens. Why, she might do that even if Raynor's fine."

"That makes it all the more important for us to find her ASAP. Now, unlock the doors and go to bed before I knock you out and drag you there."

The two officers shared a laugh before Horner unlocked the doors. As they went their separate ways, Warfield realized that the captain raised some very valid points. There was no way of telling whose side Kerrigan would still be on, or how she'd react to the bad news. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if he really wanted to find her. If the normally optimistic Horner had his doubts…

They didn't have much of a choice, but things could go very bad if the Raiders didn't play their cards right.

**Somewhere beyond the Koprulu sector**

The Ancient was annoyed. There was no better word for it. His carefully-laid plan had slowly begun to unravel. He had many agents in human organizations, but communicating with them was difficult. To bridge the massive distances between them, he had secretly been using the communication arrays on Umoja. Now the Umojan Protectorate had found out that he was using their primitive array for his own purposes. Blind to the great plan, they severed the links the Ancient used to relay his orders and even managed to arrest some of the agents in Protectorate organizations. Needless to say, this was a setback that he could ill afford. The Terrans had become a torn in his side. Even Valerian Mengsk, whom his agents assured would be a simple pawn, had grown beyond his control. Indeed, the emperor's son was the very reason the Umojans were slowly taking his intelligence network apart. Truly, they had become a threat he could no longer ignore.

He had made his decision. The sector would burn, and the Terrans would be the first to taste the flames.

For once, however, time was not on his side. The longer he waited, the more organized and powerful the Terrans could potentially become. Being fickle and unpredictable by nature, they were simply too dangerous to remain. The Ancient knew he had to strike, and do so soon. Now was the perfect time: the Dominion, the only power with the military might to truly challenge him was heavily divided. Civilian unrest was still prevalent on many of their worlds. Their fleets had been commandeered by various men, all competing against one another, trying to achieve goals the Ancient could care little about. The timing could not have been better.

The gateway in his ship flickered to life, and Duran materialized into the hall. At least the gateways were still usable.

"Ah, Duran. It appears you have been quite busy of late. Where have you been?"

Duran, posing as a Terran, politely bowed before his master. "Lord, I have been working on a plan to lure the Queen of Blades from hiding."

This sparked the Ancient's interest. While the Terrans were a more immediate threat right now, the power of the Zerg could not be understated. "Truly? What treacherous plot have you hatched this time?"

"I have found the last remaining link Kerrigan has to her humanity: Commander Raynor. I believe that if we take him prisoner, she will without doubt attempt to free him, allowing us to force her into the open."

The Ancient burst into laughter. "Do you truly believe she will fall for such a transparent ploy, little Duran? Even if she still cares for him, she will know it is a trap. The Zerg Queen will not take the bait."

"Probably, but she will attempt to save him anyway. Such is the nature of a human driven by love, my lord. If we do not stop her now, she will rise to humanity's defense, threatening us all."

"Duran, please. Surely you do not believe there is any humanity left within her? The Second-born exist to consume, and they have become most proficient at it. They influence everything they touch, reshape them, mind, body, and soul, until their prey becomes their brother. No mere human would have the strength of will to stand against their power for long. Whatever remained of her old self will have perished by now. She will not come to the Terran's rescue."

While Duran was not the kind to disagree with his master, he could not stay silent. "My lord, we have no other way of forcing her out of the shadows. The Protoss are making little progress in tracking her down. I fear that by the time they will find her, Kerrigan will be too strong for them to defeat. I believe this is our best opportunity for eliminating the Swarm's leadership, allowing your children to use their power to vanquish the Protoss and the humans with impunity. I have already set my plan into motion."

The Ancient started into his servants eyes, annoyed at this apparent display of initiative. "I do not wish to engage the Zerg at this time. The Terrans are a better target. They are divided and will prove to be easy prey for my children."

"But my lord," Duran almost pleaded "an attack will only unify them. Our hybrids are nowhere near strong enough to stand against the full might of the humans."

"I am well aware of that, which is why we must strike them first. They will unite when we show our strength, which is why we must eliminate them when they are not prepared to face us. We will drive straight into the heart of their empire and tear it to pieces. The humans will waver at the loss of their capital worlds and as such, can be swept aside with ease."

"Lord, such an undertaking would require an army far greater than what he can acquire on such short notice. Our hybrids are strong and quite numerous, but most of them do not live up to our expectations. We simply do not have the power to mount an invasion of the most heavily defended worlds in the sector."

The Ancient simply snickered. His display showed a scarred jungle world. "The Queen of Blades has been somewhat lax in her reclamation efforts. The lowest hanging fruit has remained untouched. One that so happens to be exactly what I require…" He briefly sank into his thoughts, before turning to Duran. "If your plan to trap Kerrigan fails, we will have lost little. Your success would be unexpected, but welcome nonetheless. You may take a few of our rejects to ensure that it does. The rest will be needed elsewhere…" His eyes returned to the display in front of him. "We require more meat for the grinder, and I know where we can find our recruits…"

_A/N I would like to answer a question a user named Kane left in his review of the previous chapter. Normally, I would use the PM system for that, but (a) I can't send him PM's (probably because you need to enable them in your account settings, or maybe I'm an idiot and there's something wrong on my end) and (b) some of you are probably wondering the same thing. Anyway, I would prefer using the PM system. That way I don't need to fill up half a chapter with a flow-breaking essay. _

_He asked if I would ever bring back the Overmind. In short: no. Don't get me wrong, I think the Overmind was an awesome character, but in my opinion, dead characters should stay dead._

_First of all, bringing back the Overmind is unnecessary for this story to work. I have most of the layout planned already, and I think I can bring this fic to a satisfying conclusion without him. In fact, if I wanted to include the Overmind, I would have to go out of my way to invent a reason to bring him back (not to mention that I'd have to think of a way to make this physically possible in the first place). This would add yet another player to a plot filled with schemers all trying to out-manipulate each other. Mind you, someone like the Overmind would have to pull of some pretty awesome feats of manipulation for me to do it justice, i.e. a whole new story arc and all the screen time that comes with it. The thing is, I don't believe I can pull this off without either the story becoming an impenetrable and incomprehensible mess, some serious retconning in this fic, or by strapping the canon to a surgical table and brutally savaging it with a meat cleaver. This is my first piece of writing after all, at least off this scale, and I don't want it to become any more of a gambit pile-up than it already is. Sometimes, you have to leave a good plot point or character unused, simply because you can't fit it in with the rest of the story. 'Kill your darlings' is the proper term, I believe. Sometimes, less is more and adding things just because you can doesn't necessarily improve a story._

_The most important reason, however, is that, in my opinion, big events need to have irreversible consequences for them to have emotional weight. Death is a major event because as it is generally permanent. It is a horrible thing because, most of the time, there is no way to bring someone back from it. If characters would be able to come back from the dead, would a sacrifice still mean anything? Is Tassadar still as heroic as he once was now that he has essentially become Protoss Space Jesus? His 'resurrection' only cheapened his sacrifice. Why, I'd even say that that is probably the biggest flaw in the story of Wings of Liberty. The way I see it, the Overmind HAD to die in order to save the Zerg from oblivion. He knew he had to find a replacement that the Dark Voice could not control, namely Kerrigan. This heroic feature is what made him so interesting: the character actually had some depth to him rather than being just a one-dimensional villain. His life becomes more interesting because his death and his legacy was._

_Note that this extends to many other things as well. Zerg infestation, for example, is supposed to be one of the worst things that can happen to a person in this universe. Would it still be as horrible a fate if it was fully curable?_

_In short: the Overmind is dead and, for the sake of this story and my own sanity, I intend to keep him that way._

_Anyway, I hope that answers your question._


	42. Chapter 42

**Train, Dead Man's Rock**

Things had been suspiciously quiet on Dead Man's Rock. The Raiders have been monitoring in-system communications with their suits and found little comm. traffic. Too little, for Raynor's liking. The Dominion forces were still in orbit, but somehow had failed to locate them thus far. One would think that with the ridiculous number of ships this 'Morrigan' brought with him, finding the rebels would have been a piece of cake. Some of the men had theorized that most of the ships had left already, off to fight somewhere else. Others thought that the Dominion was maintaining radio silence because they were ready to strike at any time and thought the Raiders might be listening in. Raynor didn't know which one was more unsettling: the latter meant that they could get hit at any time, the former meant that they either found Kerrigan or the rest of the Raiders.

Then, of course, there was Stanley the Hybrid. By now, most of the men had met the creature. While nearly all of them had been somewhat suspicious at first, the creature's disarming presence and rather child-like behavior won over most of them. Damn thing made friends wherever it went. The medic, Kat, seemed particularly endeared by it. She even took it upon herself to 'raise' it, trying to teach it English and proper human behavior. It didn't really work, but that didn't stop her from trying. At least she managed to stop it from accidently chopping people's heads off with those damn scythes.

Strangely enough, Harvey still couldn't help but wonder if the hybrid was really as simple-minded as he seemed. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something 'off' about it, other than the fact that it was a freak of nature. If he were a suspicious man, which he was, he'd call the creature a bit too friendly. No life-form could possibly be as comically stupid as Stanley was. Harvey often wondered out loud if it was all an act. That the creature was trying to infiltrate their ranks and betray them at the worst possible time. Raynor replied by saying that if the hybrid was acting, it'd deserve a prize for it. The lieutenant replied that the commander's head dredged in barbeque sauce would probably be good enough for the creature.

He was probably being paranoid. At least Raynor hoped he was…

The train finally neared Deadman's Port. Raynor had decided that the best course of action was to pay Han a visit. They had to find a place to hide, especially considering their newest member. The Raiders had done good business in the past and Mira Han was not the kind of person to let a good employer slip through her fingers. If they were lucky, maybe she'd help them hide for a while, or introduce them to someone who could. Then again, she was a mercenary. If the Dominion paid her enough, she'd probably sell them out. At this point in time, however, the Raiders couldn't afford to be picky.

Upon arrival at Deadman's Port's train station, the Raiders immediately noticed that something was horribly wrong. Normally, this place was alive with people. Sure, it wasn't the busiest part of the planet, but there were always someone coming and going. Not today.

The entire station was deserted. Not a single living thing in sight. Just…silence. How was this even possible? Even if there weren't any people around, there would always be the sounds of vehicles from further into the city. The only thing that would ground all civilian traffic was a large-scale turf war between mercenary gangs, but those weren't exactly quiet events either. Something was very, very wrong.

The Raiders moved into the city, wary of an ambush. Someone, or something, made an entire city go dark. If it was still there, they were going to pump it full of lead. However, when they got to the city proper, the only thing that greeted them was the stench of death and the sight of corpses.

"Aww, man." One of the Raiders said. "I knew the Dominion was bad, but I'd never thought they'd do all this just to get to us."

"I doubt it was the Dominion, private." Responded another. "Even those bastards couldn't do this without causing a few riots. Especially after what we pulled off a few weeks ago."

"If not the Dominion, then who did? I see a whole bunch of dead people with bullet holes in them. I'm sure it wasn't them Zerg. Maybe the mercs all went kill crazy. Maybe a bunch of mind-controlling doom aliens came by and made them kill each other for giggles. Maybe it's drugs? Drugs are bad, you know."

"Or maybe you've been watching too many damn movies…"

"Or maybe you two need to can it." Raynor said, his patience wearing thin. "Keep it down, before someone we don't like hears us. We don't need any more attention right now."

Harvey, having finished scanning the area, stepped in. "I doubt that, sir. There's no one here."

"What do you mean, no one?" The commander responded in surprise.

"As in, this place is deserted. Zero life-signs, zero heat-signatures apart from the carrion eaters. Everyone left, it seems. At least the ones that aren't dead…"

Raynor was rather surprised by this. Yes, the road was full of corpses, but Deadman's port was a city of thousands. If everyone is dead, there should have been far, far more. Where did they go? Also, how did this happen so fast? The Raiders were gone for a few weeks at most. No faction in the galaxy could depopulate an entire city that fast without leveling it completely. Not to mention that there were always survivors. Humans were nothing if not inventive when their lives were at stake. Somewhere, in some nook or cranny, mankind would continue to exist, no matter how hard you tried. Not here, though. The Raiders had high grade thermal imaging equipment in the sector build into their suits. If there was anyone out there, they should have found them by now.

"We should go to Mira Han's base. If there's anything alive in this city, we'll find it there." The others agreed with Raynor and they went onwards.

When they finally found Mira's base, their hearts sank into their boots. What was once a near impenetrable bastion was now a smoldering ruin. Bunkers were cracked open by artillery fire. Men and machine alike lay broken across the ground, gutted by bullets and other munitions. There was not a soul left alive here. The Raiders entered the remains of the planetary fortress. It was a saddening sight: armor plates strewn about, exposing wires the internal structures. The barrels of the Ibikis cannon were ruined, barely attached to the superstructure. Whoever pushed through here had a lot of firepower.

The inside was no better. Bodies, rubble and bullet holes wherever they looked. The Raiders searched the place regardless. Maybe someone survived. Someone who could tell them what the hell happened. Raynor went straight for the command deck, hoping to find Han alive. He was to be disappointed.

When he finally found Han, he found her with two empty pistols and at least a dozen bullet wounds. She may not have survived this battle, but Raynor was certain she took quite a few of her attackers with her. A fitting end for someone who spent her entire life fighting and killing. Knowing Han, she wouldn't have had it any other way. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the culprit. All they found were more dead mercs. Either the attackers took the bodies and wiped away any trace of their existence, or Han was killed by her own soldiers. Neither option was something the commander wanted to deal with.

"Did anyone find any trace of Colonel Orlan? He's the reason we came to this ball of rock in the first place." In spite of the carnage, Raynor still had a mission. He couldn't forget the big picture, not now.

After a bunch of negatives, one of his men responded. "We found him, sir. What's left of him, anyway. Orlan is a no-go, that's for sure." Great, mission failed. Hopefully Matt would find a way to decode those messages on his own.

"Sir, we found a survivor, down in the kitchen. Poor bastard locked himself in the freezer. Damn thing's lined with lead. Must be why we couldn't pick him up on the thermals. " Raynor's spirit rose up a bit at his man's announcement. Maybe he could tell what was going on.

When he got to the kitchen, he found several of his men trying to talk to the survivor. He was big, wore CMC armor painted in the colors of Han's mercenary groups, and had more scars than Raynor could count. Everything about him said that he was the kind of man that eats danger with a side of bullets for breakfast. Everything except the fact that he was shivering and babbling like a lunatic.

The Raiders tried talking to the man, but it was of no use. The survivor just sat there, yammering about 'voices' and 'monsters'. What could possibly have reduced a badass merc to a nervous wreck? Hoping that Kat would know what to do, Raynor called the medic. He was no psychologist. Unfortunately, neither was Kat. She entered the room, apologizing preemptively about the fact that she probably wouldn't be able to help the poor man.

"Look, commander, unless this guy has a physical problem, I'm going to be…" She was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream. One no human vocal should be able to produce. The source of the cry, the survivor, was pointing his finger at Stanley, who had followed the medic around like a puppy. Just when the Raiders wanted to ask what was going on, the man fell to the ground. Dead. "What the…Just a sec, I think he's having a heart attack."

The medic got to work, but in spite of her efforts, she could not revive him.

"What just happened? Why did he just drop dead like that?" Raynor demanded to know.

"I…I don't know. Fear-induced heart attacks aren't unheard of, but not like this." She pushed a few buttons on the console of her suit, showing a holographic display of the patient's body. "See that? His heart just fell apart. I didn't even think that was possible…"

While Kat fruitlessly continued trying to revive her patient, the commander looked at the hybrid in shock. Stanley seemed to have lost interest and started raiding garbage bins, but Raynor could not dismiss this so easily. Only one question floated in his mind right now:

What the_ hell_ happened here?

**Leviathan, High Orbit, L-540**

From orbit, the planet designated L-540 seemed insignificant and unremarkable. It was a mostly brown ball of rock with a single moon. A few clouds filled the atmosphere and a couple of mountain ranges could be seen if you looked really closely. On the whole, the planet was so unremarkable that nobody even bothered giving it a name. There was nothing of value here, unless, of course, you knew where to look…

"Scanning. No other ships in system detected." Izsha spoke, before breaking her monotone and asking: "Mistress, are you well? You seem…disturbed."

"Are you sure that there's no one else in-system?" Kerrigan replied.

The adjutant was right, though. "None that we can detect. Do you have reason to suspect otherwise?"

"Just a gut feeling." There was something wrong about this mission. Kerrigan could feel it. What, however, she couldn't be sure. "Continue, Izsha."

"As you wish. Me'dea has been located on the planet surface. She is using the behemoth's interior as a base of operations, keeping her forces hidden from outsiders. I cannot tell if she is hostile to us, or how numerous her brood is. Not without contacting her."

"Don't. If she's on our side, she won't mind an unannounced visit. If she isn't, I don't want to give her any more time to dig in."

Tiberias decided to chime in. "Look, if she tries to kill us, just show her the five leviathans we have in orbit. If that doesn't convince her, tell her about Za'gara. With a behemoth entrusted to her, the rest of her brood probably won't be that impressive. Balance of power and all that. It's a simple pick-up, nothing more. It's not like the entire Dominion fleet is about to pop out of nowhere and drop nukes on our heads. At least I hope not. The last time I got nuked, it took me three days to scrape all the burnt carapace of my body. Very unpleasant, believe me."

Cain's attempt to lighten the mood was welcome, but futile, as usual. Somehow, Kerrigan knew this wasn't going to end well. For whom, however, she couldn't be sure. "I'll take your word for it. Anyway, we'll land this leviathan and take its forces to the behemoth. The rest will stay in orbit as reserve. Izsha, if anyone, and I mean _anyone_, gets within a light-year of this planet, warn me."

"As you wish, mistress…"

"Good. Let's get going, then."

As the leviathan streamed through the atmosphere, Tai and Izsha became increasingly worried about their queen's behavior. Either she was wrong and getting dangerously paranoid, or she was right…


	43. Chapter 43

_A/N 100,000 words! Hurray for arbitrary and utterly meaningless milestones!_

**Surface of L-540**

The leviathan groaned slightly as it landed on the planet's surface. After it had opened its mouth, the reason became apparent: it had landed in the middle of a sand storm.

"Izsha, I can barely see three feet in front of me. Couldn't you have landed us someplace else?" The Queen asked, visibly annoyed by the lousy weather. Even the Zerg would have trouble walking around here.

"Negative, mistress." The adjutant replied in her head. "This sand storm has been here for as long as we have known of the planet's existence. It is part of the reason Me'dea chose to take the behemoth here: combat is difficult under these conditions. The Swarm will easily survive, but little else. Maneuvering may be more difficult than usual."

Well, Izsha's probably right about that… Kerrigan thought. She decided to leave her C-10 behind; the weapon would probably jam within seconds. Her abilities and her Zerg bodyguards would have to do. She had become confident enough with her powers for this not to be an issue.

The leviathan disgorged the army of Zerg it was carrying, with Kerrigan in the lead. She was immediately greeted by a wind that felt like her face was being held against a sanding machine. The winds seemed to tear straight through her suit and the toxic air burned in her lungs. If it weren't for her enhanced physiology, she'd probably be dead by now, rather than just miserable. The other Zerg seemed to struggle against the elements as well. Me'dea really had to pick the worst possible location for her base of operations. At least the Terrans and the Protoss would have as much trouble as the Zerg were having. Aircraft would certainly be grounded and heavy mech would need constant repairs just to remain intact.

A few drones scuttled by, apparently just as encumbered by the weather as Kerrigan's forces were. It seemed like the defenders would be weakened as well, if it would come to blows. She wouldn't appear weak in front of her broods, however. After about 30 minutes of the most difficult hike that Kerrigan could remember undertaking, they arrived at an organic entrance structure at the base of a mountain range. According to Izsha, this was one of the entrances into the behemoth. The army entered through a doorway not dissimilar to a human air-lock. As they walked up the tendril-like passageway, Kerrigan tried to shake as much sand out of her suit as possible. For some reason, carapace armor didn't seem as unattractive as it used to.

Finally, the Zerg reached an enormous, hollow chamber: the actual insides of the behemoth.

"This place is huge!" Kerrigan was utterly humbled by the sheer scale of the creature she was standing in. "I mean, this hold alone is big enough to put a leviathan in. This thing must be nearly as high as the mountain range. How did Me'dea manage to hollow out an entire mountain?"

"I didn't." Said a shrill, feminine voice. "The behemoth _is_ the mountain. The sand that quickly covered it allowed me and my brood to remain hidden from interlopers. Until now…"

"You must be Me'dea…"

"Indeed." The broodmother noticed the many weapons aimed at her, a small army ready to destroy her if their queen so desired. "You may tell your minions to stand down. I have sensed the leviathans in orbit and I know when my brood is outmatched. There is no benefit in allowing my brood to be destroyed in a pointless conflict. I came to speak, not to fight. Who are you, and why did you come here?"

With a gesture, Kerrigan ordered her forces to back off. "I'm Kerrigan, and I'm trying to rebuild the Swarm. I was hoping to recruit your brood along with this behemoth to the cause."

"Kerrigan…You were the Queen of Blades once, were you not? I had thought you dead."

"Yeah, I get that a lot…" Kerrigan deadpanned.

"And here you are, standing before me. I should not have been surprised. You were mighty before, and your power does not seem to have diminished much. There are few Terrans strong enough to even attempt to reunite the Swarm. Far fewer that would succeed as well as you apparently have…"

"So, is that a yes, or a no?" The Queen wasn't feeling very patient for the rather wordy creature. Me'dea should have recognized her ruler already without dancing around the issue. If they weren't going to talk, she'd have to do this the hard way…

"It is obvious to me that you are the stronger here. I shall serve, if you wish me to." The broodmother politely 'bowed' as a sign of submission.

"Good. I'd hate to have to kick your ass to. I have too few broodmothers as it is. How long until we can take off?"

"Immediately, if necessary. Do you wish me to begin preperations?"

"Not yet. We want to make some modifications first. Tiberias will explain…"

Cain excitedly took the broodmother by the hand and started to babble about all the wonderful upgrades he had planned for the behemoth. Seemed like he was looking forward to showing of his 'talents' for building big guns. Kerrigan smiled as the leviathan entered the mouth-like hangar, ready to deliver the resources needed. Without any interruption, she seemed to have secured access to the largest space-faring object in the sector. This was much easier than expected. Almost too easy…

With the behemoth secured, Kerrigan went back to her leviathan to clean her suit. It wasn't like she had anything better to do: Izsha monitored the skies, Tai was telling the broodmother what to do and all the other Zerg seemed to be doing their thing. She briefly contacted Za'gara, whom she had left in charge of the Marrakesh hive cluster, and received the answer that all was well. There was even another wave of reinforcements ready, in case they were necessary. The Queen noticed that things seemed to be going her way for once. She had a sizable army, a decent fleet, and the resources to replace everything if anyone managed to take it out. If Raynor needed her help against the hybrid threat, she was confident that she'd be able to oblige.

Izsha twitched in her place before saying: "Mistress, multiple contacts have just warped in…Terran battlecruisers of various classifications…They belong to Raynor's Raiders, if I'm not mistaken." Speak of the devil.

"Can you hail them? I don't want them firing on us by accident."

The adjutant looked somewhat confused. "Not necessary, they are hailing us. Patching through now…"

The vid-screen Izsha kept for these situation flickered to life. Before it stood a grim-faced Captain Horner.

Kerrigan was the first to talk. She had the feeling Horner didn't like her very much during the last visit and tried to be as polite as possible. "Captain, always a pleasure. What are you doing all the way here?"

"On the run, actually. We've ran into an angry Dominion general and we're going to need your help."

"Of course, what can I…Wait where's Jim?" Something must have gone wrong…

The captain seemed to hesitate for a few seconds. "Umm, the commander…" Before he could finish his sentence, one of his bridge officers yelled something about 'contacts'. "What! How far out?! Are they in range?" The sounds of explosions gave him his answer. "Dammit, Morrigan found us! How could he…All ships, emergency warp out of here. Batteries, return fire…Sorry Kerrigan, I'm going to call you back."

The screen cut to static again, leaving a bewildered Kerrigan. "Izsha, what just happened?"

"A fleet of several dozen Dominion capital vessels has warped in close proximity to the Raiders. One of the friendly vessels appears to have gone down and will make an emergency landing not far from here. The others were able to escape. Warning! Hostile fleet is changing course and converging on our position."

"We have leviathans, right? Use them!" She wasn't about to let the Raiders die. Not if she could help it.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you." Cain interjected. "I heard the commotion. Thought I could help. Anyway, five leviathans can easily take on ten, maybe even twenty or so Dominion ships, but not as many as those bastards are throwing at us. The first mass driver is nearly done and we have a bunch of spore cannons ready to deploy. I suggest we bait them towards the planet and shoot them down from here."

"Won't they just bomb us from orbit?"

Tai thought for a second before replying. "They'll try, but several meters of carapace covered by a few tons of wind deposited sand should keep us save long enough."

A good enough plan, in Kerrigan's mind. Risky, but it could work. "Alright, do it. Keep the leviathans nearby to mop up any survivors. Izsha, open a comm. channel with the Dominion fleet."

Tiberias looked at her in slight confusion. "You want to talk to them? Why? Do you want to persuade them to surrender? Trust me, that never works, not with people like us."

"I'm hoping I can talk them down. I don't want to risk a large portion of the Swarm, not with the hybrids breathing down our necks." Kerrigan replied, with a degree of annoyance. Cain took the hint and did not argue any further.

It took a few minutes for the signal to get an answer, as if the Terrans were discussing whether they should even bother answering. Eventually, the Dominion answered the hail.

Kerrigan, putting on her most diplomatic posture, spoke first. "Dominion commander, don't make me fight you. I'm here to collect the Zerg and take them away from Terran space. Let us leave and we won't bother you any further." It probably wasn't entirely true, but the humans didn't need to know that.

The man behind the console, probably the general, just laughed. "Do you think I'm stupid, girl? That I'm just going to let the Queen of Blades run free? Do you even remember the atrocities you've committed the past four years? The new look doesn't fool me. You're a danger to the entire sector, heck, the entire galaxy. One that we're going to end, here and now.

"Then why did you even bother answering?"

"Because he wanted to know who's in charge of the Zerg presence here." Cain said, in an uncharacteristically serious tone. "That's why he hasn't sent anyone to hunt the Raiders. Now that he knows you're leading this yourself, he'll shove everything he has down our throats in order to make sure you die, here and now. In his mind, that should end the Zerg threat. How am I doing, Jack?"

"I suppose you're close enough, Tai." The Dominion commander replied, seemingly having forgotten about Kerrigan. "Then again, you always had a decent grasp of military strategy. A pity the enemy is forcing you to use that talent against us. You should have joined the military when you still could."

"Then they would have caught me somewhere else." The infested Terran solemnly replied. "Look, I don't want to kill you if I can help it. Take the Queen's offer and get out of here."

"If you know me, then you already know my answer…"

"You're going to attack anyway."

The general calmly nodded in agreement. "If there's any part of you that realizes what sort of monster you've become, then, for all our sakes, don't to fight back while we do our jobs. I'm sorry, old friend." With that, he cut the connection.

"What was that all about? Who was that guy?" Asked a slightly puzzled Kerrigan.

"Jack Morrigan. Ghost of the past. Gives no quarter and expects none in return. He'll hunt us down to the ends of the universe unless we put him down first." Tai replied, in a calm, yet regretful, fashion.

Kerrigan didn't know what to think of the past few minutes. Morrigan sounded like the kind of Dominion commander Cain would have great fun eviscerating. The two obviously had a history: one that Tai had buried very deep into his memories. What could possibly pain him so much? What could make a snarky, possibly-psychotic jerk like him feel regret? She could have simply dug the answer out of his memories, but decided against it. She wouldn't want anyone sifting through her thoughts without permission; why should Cain be any different? He had saved Kerrigan's life many times already. She owed him that much and mind-raping allies, even Zerg ones, didn't sit right with her. Especially when there were more important things to worry about right now.

One question remained, however. "Why is he apologizing for having to kill you?"

"He's not, my lady. He's apologizing for the fact that it took him three years to catch up to me."


	44. Chapter 44

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over L-540**

"Adjutant, track that signal. Where did it come from?" Morrigan ordered.

The robotic eyes of the adjutant flickered for a few seconds before it answered. "The signal originated within the mountain range, general. Warning, there is an increased heat build-up on the eastern side of the mountain range."

The general knew full well that thing was no mountain. The heat signature was his primary concern, however. "Can we destroy it from orbit?"

"Negative, general. Weather conditions make accurate targeting impossible, even with the upgraded sensor array."

"Very well. Deploy the mechanized battalions and tell them to destroy whatever is causing that anomaly. Let's flush these bastards out in the open."

Williams, tired of being left in the dark, demanded an explanation. "Sir, what are you planning? Sending in troops will just cause unnecessary casualties. I'm sure we could just bomb them from orbit. There are no colonies here, we have no reason not to."

"Bombing won't work on something that big." The general explained, trying to remain as calm as possible. "It'll take days to cut through the armor of that thing without landing on the planet and bringing it down with demo teams. By then, the Zerg will have had plenty of time to set up anti-orbital defenses. Since they haven't shot us yet, I'm guessing that they are deploying them as we speak, which probably explains the heat signatures. We need to go in now and take out those guns before they can use them on us. Besides, I want to see if those new battle hellions are as good as the R&D guys say it is."

"Fair enough. What about the Raider ship we managed to shoot down?"

"Send a few squads over there to take out any survivors. I don't want them to link up with their Zerg allies."

"Sir, they're prisoners of war!" The captain protested.

"They're rebels and, by Dominion law, race traitors. We all know the price for treason, Williams. I'm just saving the courts some time and effort." Morrigan calmly replied, having regained his composure. "Not to mention that I'm not about to let potential infestation victims on my fleet. Make sure that everyone who goes down to the surface wears a suit. I don't want any Zerg viruses spreading to our ships."

"As you wish, general." Sending men into that hellhole was the last thing Williams wanted to do. Still, he had little choice. Were he in command, his orders probably wouldn't have been any different. Apart from killing the Raiders, perhaps. Still, if they were to be executed in public, he might as well spare them the humiliation. It's an odd sense of mercy, but it's better than the show trials captured rebels generally got.

The captain wanted to punch himself in the face for thinking that. While rationally sound, killing someone in cold blood because your government would shoot them anyway is about as morally corrupt as you could get. The good general must be rubbing off on him. Maybe the Zerg weren't the only ones carrying contagious diseases around…

**Behemoth, Surface of L-540**

"Mistress, incoming drop pods. Judging by their size, they were intended to deploy vehicles." Izsha said, in a slightly alarmed tone.

Kerrigan could hardly believe it. She and her Zerg had trouble just walking a few miles. She had to leave her gun behind because she knew the damn thing would jam with all this sand. Admittedly, Terran vehicles were designed to operate in any environment and the humans would have less trouble replacing their technology than Kerrigan would have. Still, jumping straight into a sand storm infested with Zerg doesn't sound like a good idea. Unless, of course, you're the kind of person who doesn't care about losses. The more the Queen learned about General Morrigan, the more she began to dislike him. Utter disregard for the lives of those who serve under you was one of the reasons Kerrigan hated the Confederacy and defected to the Sons of Korhal. How funny that the Dominion turned out to be so much like the old regime. If she had known then what she knew now…

"He must have figured out we have spore cannons." Tai explained, uncaring or unaware of his superior's train of thought. "Those soldiers are probably coming to take them out; pave the way for an orbital bombardment."

"You know the general, what do you think we should do?" Kerrigan didn't like taking orders in a society that considers submission to be a weakness, but some tactical advice would be helpful. Cain had proven himself trustworthy enough thus far. "By the way, you still haven't told me how you two know each other."

"Maybe we can discuss that when we _aren't_ being chased by nuke-happy maniacs, my lady?" Cain replied, disapprovingly. "Anyway, I suggest we hold our ground, hold the line until we get enough guns online to chase their ships away. Zerglings and roaches will be the meat shield, hydralisks will take out their armor. With this weather, their aircraft won't be able to function at all, so we just have to worry about their tanks. A few ambushes and their men will run like little girls."

"We still have a lot of ground to cover…" Kerrigan said, mostly to herself "Me'dea, is the ground stable enough for nydus worms?"

"Yes, I believe it is." The broodmother replied. "However, building a hive outside the confines of the behemoth will be near impossible. The sand quickly covers our structures and renders them useless. I suspect the Terrans will be similarly hindered? I am no expert on machines, but their vehicles should be greatly encumbered…"

"Maybe in the long term, but not on the timeframe were working with. There are a lot of sandy places in Terran space. I'd be very disappointed if they hadn't found a way to combat a little bad weather by now. Assume that their vehicles are working exactly as they should." Tiberias said, resolutely. Kerrigan smiled. He would have made a decent officer. "I suggest we get going, my lady. We should find a good ambushing site. Getting our faces sanded off is bad enough as it is. I'd rather not add bullets to the mix as well…"

"Agreed. Me'dea, I suppose I can count on your brood as well?"

"Of course. I shall assist in any way I can."

**Outside, Surface of L-540**

Me'dea's brood was quite a bit larger than Kerrigan expected. Though it wasn't nearly as large as the force the Queen had brought with her, the broodmother would have been more than capable of stopping a sizable Terran advance. A full-scale invasion led by someone who didn't care about losses would have been too much for her, however. Even with Kerrigan's army supporting them, the battle ahead would be a difficult one. They'd have to be exceptionally clever if they wanted to end up on top.

Kerrigan was hiding behind one of the rocks the Zerg had used for cover. She could feel the humans coming closer: the emanations from their minds could easily be picked up by the Queens senses. They shed a mixture of fear for the coming battle, anger for the Zerg, and joy as their buggies ramped of rocks and hills. Hellion drivers, and rather crazy ones at that. Not that there was any other kind: anyone who drives a lightly armored buggy with a tank full of napalm strapped to it had to be mad…

The group was relatively small and didn't seem to consist of any of the larger vehicles the Dominion army had access to. It must have been a scouting party. Still, Kerrigan wasn't about to let an opportunity to thin their ranks pass her by. She allowed the group to get closer before springing her trap. All around them, Zerglings popped out of the ground and made a run for the vehicles. The Queen could practically taste their fear. However, rather than panicking, the humans quickly regained their composure and drove their buggies into a circle. She hadn't expected that they would try circling the wagons. It didn't seem like a good idea: a lightly armored buggy wouldn't stand much of a chance in close combat against hungry zerglings, regardless of whether or not it could be flanked. However, these buggies weren't ordinary hellions like the ones the Dominion had used before.

In the blink of an eye, the vehicles _transformed_, for the lack of a better word, into bipedal walkers. Using their 'arm'-mounted shields and their flamethrowers, the walkers began to rip the Zerg apart, bashing them with their limbs or incinerating them with napalm. Kerrigan immediately ordered the zerglings back, allowing the hydralisks to take shots at the vehicles. The walkers tried to close the distance, but their short range and terrible speed in this weather made them easy targets. Still, it took nearly five minutes to bring them all down. It seemed like the hellions had been given a chassis upgrade along with their new transforming abilities…

"What is with these human engineers and their transforming mechs?" Cain bellowed, holding his hand in front of his mouth so that he would eat a mouthful of sand with every word. "First, Vikings that no one can fly without killing themselves, now these things. What's next, a siege tank that can tunnel through the earth? Makes you wonder if these people have been watching too many cartoons lately…"

Before she could answer, Kerrigan could feel the presence of the second wave. This time, it was a real army: men and woman of all kinds of backgrounds. Since the Terran military tends to assign its soldiers duties based on their personality types, this was almost certainly a mixed force. Judging by the size of it, it was probably one of the main strike groups sent here to take down the spore cannons. Also, they were already alerted to the Zerg presence. The humans probably figured it out when their scouting party suddenly went dark. Without a word, the Queen ordered her troops to fall back. They had lost the element of surprise: attempting an ambush here could turn out very badly.

The Terrans were well-organized and disciplined. They moved from hill-top to hill-top, leaving some of the tanks in siege mode to provide artillery support for the advancing group. Kerrigan had seen the magistrate of Mar Sara use this 'leapfrogging' strategy a lot during her time with the Sons of Korhal. It allowed an army to move while always maintaining some siege-tank cover. Agonizingly slow, but infuriatingly difficult to stop without air support. Anyone stupid enough to attack an army moving like this would inevitably suffer heavy casualties. The Zerg had no choice, however. The Queen ordered her forces straight into the first Terran group as it moved into position, hopefully minimizing losses as their tanks hadn't fully deployed yet. As fast as they were, not even Zerg could dodge bullets and tank shells. Kerrigan could feel their minds blink out of existence by the dozen. After a bloody carnage that lasted only a few minutes, the Zerg forces crumbled and she was forced to retreat. Much to her annoyance, she could feel the humans rejoicing their victory. The Zerg, however, would get the last laugh. The humans had lost a great deal of troops in the attack and, contrary to what they may be thinking, the Zerg were far from beaten.

Anyone who has ever fought the Zerg knows that the Swarm rarely wins battles with a single push. Rather, they will throw a large force down your throat, do as much damage as possible, breed another army to replace the one lost, and do it all again. The size of a Zerg army is usually limited by the psychic strength of the controlling organism, not the rate at which they can breed. The only way to permanently stop the Zerg is to take out the leader or burn down their hives with a rapid counter-attack.

The 'leapfrogging' strategy is _not_ an example of a rapid counter-attack. Especially when the commander is being unnecessary cautious.

By the time the Terrans were within visual range of their target, Kerrigan had another army lying in wait. She had ordered several groups of roaches to burrow on top of nearby hills. If the humans were consistent with their strategies, they'd probably end up parking on top of at least one of the groups. Her instincts had proven to be correct. As the advancing human tanks deployed their shock cannons, the roaches struck. They popped up from the ground, tossing men aside and disabling the tanks with their acid. The supporting group tried to help their comrades by firing into the melee, killing human and Zerg indiscriminately. They soon had problems of their own as the rest of Kerrigan's army began to rip them to shreds.

A simple clean-up later, it was all over. Kerrigan was hoping to capture some survivors, but the toxic atmosphere quickly killed off the wounded. Still, the Dominion had been beaten back, for the time being at least. They would inevitably send another army once they realized this one had been destroyed, and the defensive guns weren't quite ready yet.

As if the universe was pulling a prank on her, she could feel Izsha's presence slip into her mind. "Mistress, another group of Terran drop pods is making its way to the surface. They will arrive in approximately 15 minutes. Also, there is a distress signal coming from the downed Raider ship. It says that they are under attack by Dominion forces and are requesting support from anyone who can hear them."

"Thank you, Izsha. Tiberias, what would you say to an opportunity to teach some humans about Zerg superiority?"

The infested Terran looked at her with a slightly annoyed look. "You want to go rescue them, don't you?"

"Too much sweet-talk?"

"Far too much…" Without further arguing and a great deal of incoherent muttering, Cain took point. He didn't like risking his hide for the sake of some humans he didn't like, but he'd obey regardless.

_A/N Fun Fact: the tank leapfrogging thing pretty much sums up how I played through the Terran campaign in SC and SC: Brood War. What can I say, I'm a better writer than I am a gamer. The roach thing pretty much sums up what happens when you try doing that in SCII multiplayer. Curse you, roaches!_


	45. Chapter 45

**Surface of L-540**

The Jackson's Revenge was a mighty vessel. It had seen countless battles across the sector, survived encounters with man and alien alike, and racked up more kills than any human starship ever constructed. It was also cursed, at least according to its crew. For reasons no one could truly understand, being the captain of this ship was wasn't exactly conducive to one's health. No one controlled this vessel for more than a few months: every last one of its captains had died violently soon after taking command.

This was a fact that the vessel's current captain was painfully aware off. His predecessor died about an hour ago, impaled by debris from an explosion that nearly vented the entire bridge. His predecessor before him died during the Char invasion. Now, marooned on a nameless planet, pounded on by the Dominion, the ship would claim its last victim. It was as if the damned ship itself, now reduced to a useless, irreparable hunk of neo-steal, crashed him on a toxic planet purely as a matter of principle. No captain would ever outlive this vessel. As the Dominion soldiers closed in, Captain Jackson (yes, that was really his name), could practically hear the ship laughing at him.

Probably for the best, he thought. It is an old spacer legend that naming a ship after yourself is bad luck, it being a sign of arrogance and all that. Sure, the ship was older than he was, but that wouldn't have changed the stigma. Assuming they somehow survived the toxic atmosphere, sand-storms, and the Dominion goons, he probably wouldn't have lasted long anyway. No one in his position ever did.

The crew were about as banged up as the ship. The few people that survived the firefight in orbit had to scramble to the armory and get their suits on before the ship crashed. Not many had made it when life-support failed. Even the ones that did survive quickly found themselves in the fight of their lives. Like carrion birds, the Dominion soldiers descended on the downed vessel. Jackson briefly entertained the thought of surrendering, but had to discard it after he saw the soldiers mercilessly gunning down his men. If the Dominion soldiers were going to kill them all, he sure as hell would make them pay for it. At least, he tried to. The enemy brought plenty of vehicles and his crew was nearly unarmed. Even the captain had nothing more than his old slugthrower at his disposal. Great for blasting mutinous crew members, not so great against tanks and heavy armor. Death seemed inevitable. Yet fate had something different in mind.

One by one, the Dominion siege tanks fell silent. The number of contacts on the suit's head-up display started diminish. Someone was killing off the enemy! His men started noticing it too. Cheers and sighs of relief could be heard over the radio, in spite of the fact that no one knew who their saviors were. For all they knew, they could be something even worse. Cautiously, Jackson pulled himself out of the foxhole he and the remainder his men had been hiding in. Using his suit's infra-red cameras, he spotted the one thing he feared even more than the Dominion: Zerg. His predecessor said they were supposed to be on their side now, but Jackson never really believed him. He had seen the ship covered in mutalisks far too often to assume that they're the good guys.

Most of the aliens were busy taking out the enemy. Amidst the dozens of Zerg signatures chasing after Dominion soldiers, however, two of them seemed to be walking towards him. While the suit marked both of them as Zerg, they seemed rather humanoid in appearance, even though one of them was far too big to be an ordinary man. Before he could open fire with his pistol, however, he could hear, of all things, a conversation between the two.

"Well, look at this!" If Jackson's suit hadn't said otherwise, he could have sworn he just heard a woman speaking. "Appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?"

"Big, damn heroes, my lady." The tall one replied. His voice had an inhuman vibe to it that made it unnerving in spite of the creature's rather cheerful delivery.

"Ain't we just…"

The two finally got close enough for Jackson and his crew to get a good look at them. The taller one was definitely a Zerg: claws, carapace, and some sort of modified C-14 resting on his shoulder. He seemed to have some blood on his hands. Jackson wondered if that was the reason for the creature's seemingly good mood. The woman (if Zerg even had genders, he reminded himself), on the other hand, could easily have been mistaken for a human if it weren't for her…hair-like tentacles, for the lack of a better phrase, and the fact that she didn't seem to be bothered by the toxic air. She wore what looked like a ghost uniform, but seemed unarmed otherwise. Still, if she was a ghost, especially a Zerg one, she probably wouldn't need weapons to kill someone.

"We heard your distress signal. Thought you could use a hand." The woman said, surprisingly calmly. Apparently she was in charge, or at least higher ranking than the other one. "Which one of you is the captain?"

Carefully, with his gun pointed right between her eyes, Jackson closed the distance. Mustering all the courage he had while trying to maintain the illusion of confidence, he said: "That would be me. Now give me one good reason why I shouldn't put a bullet in your pretty little face right now?"

In spite of the weapon or the height difference, she seemed utterly unafraid of the captain. The woman gave him an inquisitive glare, before casually stating: "I'll give you three: One, your gun's jammed." Jackson pulled the trigger. To his horror, she was right. "Two, I'm the only thing on the planet who isn't going to kill you right now. Three, shooting me will probably make my fried a little angry. If that happens he'll probably end up eating you and your men."

"No, I won't!" The big one replied, defensively.

"You won't?" The woman asked.

"Of course not! I don't eat canned food. You never know what crap they put in those tins. I'll just shoot him instead."

The captain's patience was rapidly running out. "What the hell do you want from us?!"

"Nothing really." The woman continued. "We're supposed to be allies and allies don't let each other die in sandstorms. Now, if you would come with us, the Dominion will be here soon and I'd like to be somewhere more defensible when they arrive."

Only one word popped into his mind. "Bullshit."

"Look, is it really that much to believe that we're doing this out of the goodness of our hearts?"

"Yes."

The larger Zerg busted into laughter. "Told you he'd say that! Bloody humans, they all think alike."

The woman became visibly annoyed at her companion, but did her best to ignore him. "Look, if you stay out here, you're dead men. Even if the Dominion doesn't get you, you'll probably suffocate to death when the sand clogs up the air filters in your suit. If you come with me, I'll make sure you get back to your fleet alive and unharmed."

While the promises of a Zerg weren't exactly the most valuable thing in the universe, Jackson realized that they didn't have much of a choice. He looked at his men. Though he couldn't see their faces through their helmets, the way they tightly held onto their weapons said enough. If they stayed here, they would definitely be killed, either by the Dominion or by the planet. However, if they followed her and she turned on them, their fates might be even worse. Given the fact that she somehow jammed his gun with a thought, there was no telling what she could do to them. This wasn't a decision he could make for his crew.

Jackson turned to his men and said: "Gentlemen, we're screwed. Either we stay here and die, or we follow the nice Zerg lady back to her home. I don't like either of our options, but these are the only choices we have. Everyone in favor of leaving this twisted hunk of metal, raise your hands."

One by one, the crew raised their hands. Slowly, fearfully, but raised nonetheless. To his surprise, his men agreed to leave, if reluctantly. It was obvious they weren't happy with it, but it seemed like they were more afraid of death than they were of the Zerg. Jackson nodded to his new 'friends' and began to follow them.

As the group followed their Zerg guides through the sand, the captain noticed that the ship's laughter had stopped. He snickered. Maybe he would be the first captain to outlive the Revenge…

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over L-540**

Captain Williams looked in horror at the scene below him. Delta company was being slaughtered to the last man in front of them. The Zerg were much more numerous and better entrenched than he had hoped. Surely Morrigan would pull back…

"Roaches, hydralisks, zerglings. Now we know how to deal with them. Send in three more mechanized companies, supported by thors. Crush those insects so we can move onto the primary target."

He couldn't believe it. Williams realized what the general had done. The first wave was never intended to succeed or return. The bastard sent in a company of men to collect intel so the others would know what to expect. Dammit, they should have retreated, reevaluated their options and figured out another plan. He needed to have a talk with the 'good' general before he ripped his head off in front of everyone. "Sir, can I speak with you for a moment. In private."

The general grumbled a bit, but followed anyway, ordering one of the officers to keep him updated on the latest developments. Soon, the two found themselves in an empty corridor.

"General, permission to speak freely?"

"Would saying 'no' make any difference?" The stern look on the captain's face gave Morrigan his answer. "Go ahead…"

An instant after the general finished his sentence, a fist connected with his face. He was knocked into the wall by the force of the punch. Clutching his recently broken nose, Morrigan cursed. Not nearly as much as the captain, however.

"You arrogant son of a bitch! You sent an entire god-damn company to die without a second thought. Emperor's orders be damned, give me one good reason not to rip your head off right here, right now!"

Morrigan looked at him and said: "What would you have done, if you were in charge?" Williams didn't have an immediate answer to that. "We can't run. If they get that…thing working, I don't know if the Dominion will be able to stop it. We had to go in, but going in blind against the Zerg is suicide. The weather makes scanning impossible. A small scouting party wouldn't have caused the Zerg to respond in force. We needed to know what the Swarm had access to. If I had sent in the whole regiment at once, they would all have fallen into that trap. They probably would have been obliterated just as Delta company was. I can accept losses, captain, but I won't accept failure. As horrible as it may be to you, this is the only way to get the information we need."

The captain was fuming. "That's it?! That's all you have to say for yourself?! Hundreds of good men are dead because you couldn't figure out a another method of gathering intelligence?! They have families, dammit! Friends, loved ones, god-damn adorable puppies! What are we supposed to tell them?"

"That we accepted our deaths and that of our colleagues when we put on the uniform, Williams. Lives are the currency we use to pay for humanities survival. Thousands die so that our species might live. If you can't handle that, retire." Morrigan took a deep breath before continuing. "Billions died in the first few weeks of the Zerg invasion. For the first time in our history, we face a foe willing and capable of destroying us all. We're not fighting people here, Williams. The Zerg won't listen to reason. They won't accept our surrender. We can't make peace or negotiate with them. A war with them can only end in total annihilation: ours or theirs. If it takes a million human lives to stop them, so be it."

"I'm not naïve, general. I know how warfare works. But that doesn't mean we can just send an entire company of good men to their deaths for no goddamn reason!"

"Good men?" The general sneered. "I ordered Delta company to go in first for a reason. Criminals, resocs, murderers. They are largely expendable. I took the company with the fewest people to mourn them. The lesser of many evils. Because of their sacrifice, we now know what the Zerg are capable of. The rest of our forces will have a better chance."

"Since when do you decide who's valuable? Who gave you the right to play god?!" The captain was barely in control of his actions. Every cell in his body screamed for that bastard's blood. It took nearly all of his concentration not to murder the general on the spot.

In spite of William's tirade, Morrigan remained almost unnaturally calm. "People incapable of making this kind of decision themselves. The universe doesn't owe us our right to live. It has to be paid for in blood. Our jobs have always been to play god, captain. Every day we decide who lives and dies. Every battle, we order our people into situations that we know will get some of them, and sometimes all of them, killed. All we can do is minimize the losses. Make sure that the enemy loses more than we do. I know it's difficult to see the big picture behind all the corpses, but I have always done what's best for humanity in the long run."

"You cold-hearted bastard! Why don't you take a drop pod down there, see if you're still so callous if you've seen the slaughter first-hand?"

"For the same reason you're here instead of down there. We are officers, Williams. Our knowledge and experience makes us more valuable than the average grunt. If they die, we lose a man. If we die, the chain of command starts breaking down. Don't ever underestimate your own value, Williams, or that of others. We are _not_ expendable." Morrigan put on a tone reminiscent of a drill sergeant giving a recruit a dressing-down. "It's the only reason why I'm not going to execute you for assaulting a superior. Make no mistake, I'm not afraid to give my life, or yours, if it accomplishes our goal, but I will not jeopardize our mission by throwing it away pointlessly. And neither will you!"

"And what goal would that be? I noticed your little chat with that alien. I wonder if you accepted this job out of duty, or to settle a personal vendetta…"

Morrigan's calm demeanor vanished almost immediately. The general barely managed to restrain himself before continuing. "I took this job because I'm one of the few people willing to fight this war the way it should be fought. If winning the war accomplishes other ends, so much the better. Now, captain, I want you to return to the bridge and make sure these three companies don't suffer the same fate as the first."

"So that's it, then? 'Do as I say and we'll all be fine'?"

"I never said we'd all be fine. There is always a chance that none of them will be going home. I minimized it, but I can't eliminate it. If the Zerg bring out something we can't counter, they might win no matter what we do. Make sure that they can't. I'll be in sick-bay for my nose. Keep me posted." Morrigan left without another word.

Williams hated him. He hated the way the general did things. The way he talked, the way he valued the lives of his men…

Above all, Williams hated the fact that Morrigan was right. Humanity was counting on them and their options were limited. Countless men had died already, and countless more would inevitably die in the future before the Zerg were finally defeated. It takes a particular kind of cold, unyielding fanatic to make such calls. The fact that the general made them so easily was still sickening.

Most of the officers today graduated the academy long before first contact with the Zerg in the Sara system. Very few had real combat experience with the Zerg and lived to tell the tale. The way Williams understood it, fighting the Swarm was very different from fighting other humans. Honor, mercy, the laws of war, none of these things meant anything to them. They probably weren't even capable of understanding them. Lives are nothing more than another resource to the Zerg. History has thought that the biggest jerk generally wins. If humans can't learn to be a jerk when they have to be, they will be overrun. Still, becoming the very monsters the captain had vowed to protect the Dominion from did not sit right with him, yet this mode of thinking had become increasingly common amongst the military.

He hated what humanity was becoming.

He hated the fact that he couldn't stop men like Morrigan from doing what they do.

He wasn't even sure if he should.

With a heavy heart, he walked back to the bridge. Part of him still wanted to shoot the general, but he couldn't do it. Not yet.


	46. Chapter 46

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over L-540**

Captain Williams was a little worried. Not just for the men sent down to the planet's surface; that was normal for any commander that gave a single damn about his troops. No, he was worried for his own future. Williams lost his temper back there during his little chat with the general. While he was completely in the right, you just don't punch a superior officer and get away with it. Williams was lucky not to be shot right then and there. Whatever Morrigan would eventually intend to do with him, the captain was sure he pretty much ended his career in that hallway.

Williams' datapad beeped, indicating that he just received a message from the general. It said:

'Zerg are the most dangerous when they are driven into a corner. There's a good possibility that they will try to use some sort of artillery on us. Tell the men to spread out to minimize losses from such attacks, and to strike hard and fast. Zerg can recover their losses, we can't.'

Right, back to work. One of the few good things the captain could say about the general was that he would not allow himself to be distracted, not even when his underling broke his nose. In times like these, neither should Williams. Instead, he walked to the nearest communication console and started to brief the commander on the ground.

"Captain, can I speak candidly?" The commander asked afterwards. Williams was a little worried about letting him, given what happened when he asked the same question to Morrigan a few minutes ago. At least the commander couldn't punch him through the console.

"Umm, go ahead?"

"The general's right about hitting them hard and not letting them recover, but really, spread out?"

"That's what he said, commander. Spread out so that their artillery doesn't blow you to smithereens."

The commander just sighed and shook his head. "Frankly, I don't like the idea of taking tactical advice from someone who sits in a space-ship all day long, no offence. If I spread out my men, it'll make them even more vulnerable to Zerg attacks and ambushes. If I keep them together, I can wipe them out with overlapping fields of fire. You know, tactics 101."

"I'm fully aware of that, and I'm sure the general knows as well. He was supposed to be a field commander himself a few years ago, from what I've heard. Anyhow, their artillery…"

"Zerg artillery, captain?" The commander cut him off. "Look, I've never seen or read about Zerg artillery, apart from guardians and broodlords. We know the Swarm has neither right now. In fact, the whole idea of Zerg using long-artillery is ridiculous. The Swarm swarms. It's what they do. If they bring out the big guns, they'll blow themselves up along with the rest of us."

"Maybe so, but the general gave you an order. He's got more stripes than we do. Humor him." Oh, the hypocrisy, Williams thought. Still, if there's one thing more detrimental to an army than an idiot general, it's a lack of discipline. If individual soldiers started to act on their own accord, the strike force would be doomed before the battle even began.

"With all due respect, captain,…" Why did those words always sound like the speaker wasn't about to give any respect? "…don't tell me how to do my job. If the general has a problem with my tactical decisions, tell him to haul himself and his stripes to the nearest lander so he can explain it to my face. If not, tell him where he can shove his orders." The commander nodded to his side, cutting the connection. Williams was afraid this might happen. He could only hope the general was wrong about how the Zerg would defend themselves. If Morrigan wasn't, those poor souls are about to walk into a death trap…

**Surface of L-540**

It was quiet. Not silent, just quiet. All Kerrigan could hear was the omnipresent sand storm and the occasional Zerg that skittered by. She knew better than to let her guard down, however. As cliché as it sounded, she knew this was just the calm before the storm.

In the distance, she could feel minds of the Terran soldiers arrayed against her. Admittedly, it was still only a distant murmur. Nothing compared to the never-ending chants and voices of the Zerg she commanded. Still, the sheer size of the buzzing indicated that the human army was massive. Larger than hers.

She had sent a few Zerglings ahead to see how large and of what composition the enemy army would be. The plan was for them to burrow in their path so they could use their highly advanced senses to 'see' the enemy coming. At least, that would have happened if it weren't for their tanks. Some of the Terran siege tanks had plough-like blades attached to their front. This crude, but effective measure tore through the ground, allowing them to force the Zerg out of their burrows, at the cost of being slowed down immensely. Sure, the blades, formed from scrap metal, were about as sharp as a larva's mind and couldn't hope to actually kill any of the Zerg on their own, but the fact that they could force the Zerg out of the ground would make things very difficult. Kerrigan had hoped to use the same trick that worked so well last time, burrowing units into the ground to ambush the Terrans. This simple measure threw that strategy out of the window.

The humans were adapting to their enemies, just like the Zerg were. They couldn't bring their detector-equipped aircraft here, so they invented another solution. Clever, ingenious, deceptively simple. Kerrigan would have applauded them for their invention, if the humans hadn't been trying to kill her with it.

Terran innovations aside, the Zerglings did manage to get some intel before they died. The enemy was huddled together in three large groups, each probably the size of a company. Modified tanks were placed in front, for obvious reasons, followed by an assortment of Dominion ground forces centered around a few thors. A combination of heavy armor and infantry that would be almost impossible to break. One of the Confederate officers that she had worked with before her defection to the Sons of Korhal liked to use a similar strategy; he called it a 'deathball'. A fitting term for a force that was about to rip through the Zerg lines like a glacier.

Tai stepped outside, probably to report on their newest 'guests'. "Well, I put the hitchhikers in a safe spot, my lady, away from the action. They should be fine there. Odd bunch though, won't open their visors or even breath the air without a filter. I don't even know what they look like under their helmets…"

"We have bigger problems right now. There's a giant Dominion army on our doorstep and we don't have the forces to stop them."

Cain posture didn't change a bit, though Kerrigan couldn't tell why. Was he confident in her abilities, or didn't he care about the fact that he was probably going to die very soon?

"A pity our guests didn't bring any weapons with them." He calmly stated. "We could have used the firepower."

Firepower. Yes, they needed more firepower. A lot more. Suddenly, Kerrigan realized that they had just that. "Izsha, what's the status on those spore cannons?"

"Not yet complete, mistress. The firing and loading mechanisms are functional, but the barrels have not yet been formed. They do not yet have the range and accuracy needed to effectively shoot down the enemy starships."

"How about ground targets?" The queen asked. "Can you get the cannons to fire on their ground forces?" Sure, no one had tried doing that before, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. Some might argue that experimenting in the heat of battle wasn't a very good idea. To a Zerg, however, it was the best time there is.

It took a few seconds for the former adjutant to respond. "That…would not be impossible. Their current lack of effective range would actually make that a possibility. However, while their destructive power and large area of effect would make them highly effective, the weapon's accuracy leaves much to be desired. It is unlikely that I will be able to score a direct hit on anything of value."

"If I can't have accuracy, I'll settle for saturation. Bring all the available spore cannons online and get them to fire at the same target. The Swarm will clean up what's left." Kerrigan turned to Tiberias, who was grinning quite stupidly. "What?"

"Oh, your plan just sounds like something I would come up with." He said. "I wonder if I'm rubbing off on you."

"There's nothing wrong with picking up good advice, however rare." She responded half-jokingly. "Just don't let it get to your head."

Using a nydus worm to quickly travel to the first company, Kerrigan realized just how well armed these Terrans were. This force was at least as large as the one she previously defeated, but seemed to be much better armed. Also, there were two more of them. Rather than leapfrogging their way across the dune, this force moved as a single unit. The minds of the soldiers were focused and alert. Its commander was, apparently, better at his job than the previous one was.

Kerrigan inspected her weapon. While she had no intention of using it directly, the targeting laser attached to her rifle would prove to be very useful. Normally, it would be used to acquire precise coordinates for nuclear strikes. With a small change in the software, however, it could easily be repurposed to give Izsha the coordinates she needed. Unfortunately, the range of the laser was prohibitively short and the Terrans annoyingly smart. The humans gave every group of rocks or other potential hiding spot a wide berth, forcing the Queen to expose herself if she wanted to get a proper targeting solution. She needed a distraction.

With a wordless order, the Zerg attacked. Kerrigan knew that they wouldn't last long in a direct firefight against army that size. The possibility of a victory without support didn't even occur to her any more. Using the chaos as her cloak, she found herself in a good position to take aim at the enormous walkers that were the centerpiece of the buffet of death the Terrans were serving. After a few agonizingly long seconds, Izsha told her she had what she needed. Without missing a beat, Kerrigan ordered the remainder of her forces back and began to run as fast as her legs could carry her. Even if the humans weren't going to kill her, the barrage might. Neither option was particularly appealing.

The Terrans cheered when the Zerg retreated. A common mistake. When the Swarm runs away from you, especially if they are still at fighting strength, it usually means that they were the ones who were going to have the last laugh. The humans realized their mistake when half a dozen globes of acidic death started to rain down from the heavens. The sheer force of impact sent men flying and tore machines in half. The resulting clouds of spores were even more deadly, however. Marines started to scream in horror as the spores started to eat through their suits. Vehicles started to fall apart as the very metal holding them apart began to rot away. The spores quickly lost their potency, but the damage had already been done. When the Zerg returned for round two, there wasn't much left to stop them.

One company down, two to go.

Another worm ride and some reinforcements later, the second company came into view. Kerrigan, wondering if the spores themselves were far more deadly than the actual impact, ordered Izsha to modify the projectiles so that they'd explode just before they landed. Air-burst shells were common in the age before power armor made shrapnel a non-issue. However, no one had ever thought of filling them with corrosive spores before. The Queen's little experiment proved to be a success. The spores, spread over a much larger area than before, devastated the unfortunate company. While the vehicles could resist a good amount of punishment, the infantry could not. Thors and siege tanks are formidable, but not when half-dissolved and caught without support. The 'battle' was so short and simple, Tiberias couldn't resist making 'acid rain' jokes. Kerrigan quickly made him stop with a corrective smack.

Two companies down, one to go. That didn't mean they could afford to get complacent.

The last company was in sight. However, these men seemed to have learned from the other two. Realizing that death would come from above rather than below, they busily and chaotically tried to spread themselves, and in particular their vehicles, out in a long line. Even with the horrific power of the spore cannons at her disposal, there was no way to get everything in one volley. On top of that, they were getting dangerously close to the behemoth. Kerrigan had no choice but to engage them here. She struck at the more vulnerable left flank first, hoping to force the soldiers to clump up. Her plan worked, somewhat. When they saw the Zerg running, the human soldiers fled in the other direction, hoping to avoid the inevitable barrage of spores that would soon be raining down upon them. In spite of this a third of the infantry and half of the vehicles were caught in the blast and taken out of the battle. Not enough.

While Kerrigan tried to outrun the barrage she called in, the remnants of the company caught sight of her and began to focus their fire. She swore. They must know who she was. The two remaining thors led the charge into group of Zerg protecting her, pounding away at them like a hammer. The Queen managed to jump behind a large boulder for protection, but not before several stay bullets lodged themselves in her back and shoulder.

A human would be forced to the ground, wounded and screaming, but Kerrigan wasn't entirely human any more. Mengsk had tried killing her once before, and now he tried it again through his proxies. The thought that the bastard might be getting away with it a second time was something she couldn't bear. Ignoring the pain and fueling her psychic might with sheer, unbridled fury, she ripped the boulder she was hiding behind out off the ground and hurled it at the enemy like a telekinetic bowling ball. One of the thors managed to dodge it, but the other wasn't so lucky. The massive walker, along with anything around it, were crushed into pulp. The surviving Zerg, sensitive to their leader's pain and rage, immediately redoubled their efforts to destroy the Terrans. The second thor tried to stop them, but Kerrigan wouldn't allow it. She tried crushing it with a gesture. When the machine wouldn't fall in spite of the psychic wrath hurled against it, she telekinetically pushed it over instead. The Zerg quickly swarmed over the helpless pilot and tore him to pieces. With most of the heavy mech gone and the Zerg in a frenzy, many of the soldiers began to run for their lives. They didn't get very far.

Kerrigan surveyed the battlefield. She had won, although nearly her entire force was wiped out. It didn't matter, she could replace them. It was only then that she realized how exhausted she was. Apart from the bullet wounds in her back, she was also bleeding out of her ears and nose. Symptoms of the overuse of psychic powers. She had to lean on some siege tank wreckage just to remain standing. Kerrigan chuckled to herself. Even Zerg have their limits, it seems. She didn't mind being hurt that much. It reminded her she was still alive.

Trying to pierce through the mist of pain, she looked for any other human forces. Thankfully, she didn't find any. Kerrigan slowly sat down to allow her natural regeneration to heal her wounds. There was still one problem, however: the massive fleet in orbit.

"Izsha, what's the status on that mass driver?"

"It is fully operational and ready to fire at your command, mistress."

Good, Kerrigan thought. Her mouth began to curve into a slightly devilish grin. "I think it could use a few test runs, don't you agree? Aim it at the most heavily armed cruiser in the Dominion fleet."

"As you wish, mistress."

Kerrigan looked to the sky. Though the sand made it impossible to see anything, she could feel tiny little stars in the sky. Stars that would soon be extinguished. The enemy had shown her no mercy. Why should she show any in return? When Izsha informed her the target was in the weapon's sights, there was only one word came to her mind.

"Fire."


	47. Chapter 47

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over L-540**

The bridge was completely quiet. No one could bring themselves to say a word as they watched the slaughter down below: the gunfire and death, the terrified screaming of men dissolved alive. Williams knew the scene was going to haunt his dreams for many weeks to come.

Morrigan was right. Zerg were even more dangerous when they were cornered. The commander had underestimated them, ignored his advice, and now hundreds of men died horrifically because the man thought he knew best.

The door opened, revealing the rather aggravated general. Though his nose had been repaired, the man's grim expression hadn't budged an inch. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. "Let me guess: the good commander decided to disregard my orders and now he and all his men are dead."

Morrigan was known for anticipating events, but he shouldn't be clairvoyant. At least, that's what Captain Williams thought. "The battle concluded just two minutes ago. How did you…"

The general cut Williams off and sat down in the command chair. "It's very quiet in here, so I'll assume the mission failed miserably. Also, you haven't shot me, so I can assume that it weren't my orders that got the strike force wiped out." Morrigan looked at the faces of the crew. Their expressions confirmed his suspicions. "'General' is not just a nickname. I am your superior officer. As surprising as that may sound, I might have gotten this position because I know what I'm talking about. What do they teach you in boot camp on day one about that? Always obey orders to the best of your ability, no matter how dumb or dangerous they seem. That's why the drill sergeant has you rolling in the mud for weeks. What happens when you don't obey orders? If you're lucky, you get court-martialed. If you aren't, you get killed and jeopardize the whole operation, maybe even change the course of a war for the worse." While the general tried to remain calm, it was obvious that he was fuming. Rightfully so.

"But, sir…" Williams tried to interject.

"No buts, captain. You know what happens when soldiers stop trusting their officers and disrupt the chain of command. I also know that I am partially to blame for that. I had assumed that the commander would be able to save his objections for the after action report. I was wrong and a lot of men suffered for it. If we don't do something fast, a lot more will suffer for it too."

Almost by cue, one of the battlecruisers exploded. "Sir, we've just lost the Vagabond! She was hit by a hypervelocity projectile coming from the surface." One of the bridge officers cried. "Four more signatures. Class ten Zerg flyers: Leviathans, sir. Outside weapon range, though they aren't closing in."

All eyes were on Morrigan. He had feared this would happen. The window of opportunity that they had had just closed right in front them. Slammed shut like a door in your face. He was torn between his desire to continue hunting his quarry and the knowledge that staying here would end up getting everyone killed. After a few minutes of indecision and another lost battlecruiser, he gave the order.

"All ships, emergency warp. Regroup at rendezvous point 15. We'll burn these monsters another time."

A few moments later, space bent in upon itself and the skies above L-540 were silent once again.

**Surface of L-540**

An instant after Kerrigan gave the order, the thunderous roar of a cannon overpowered all the other noise in the vicinity. Seconds later, she could feel one of the many 'lights' in the sky go dark. A direct hit. Tai's little cannon was working exactly as it should.

She quickly ordered her leviathans to close the distance and ordered the cannon to get ready to fire again. Soon, a second battlecruiser was torn from the sky. With the leviathans in position and the spore cannons nearly ready for anti-starship duty, she was confident that no Dominion soldier would escape this world alive. Just as it should be. She was the Queen of the Swarm. Mengsk's lackeys would pay for trying to challenge her in the same way every other enemy had before them: in blood.

She reviewed her own thinking and was shocked. This wasn't like her. This wasn't the person she was supposed to be.

Kerrigan didn't have to kill the Dominion fleet. Shooting down a few of them would be enough to scare them into fleeing. They were just ordinary men. Mengsk probably didn't give a damn about them anyway. Apart from this 'Morrigan' fellow and his top captains, most of them were probably just good men trying to stay alive in a hostile and violent sector. Men, trying to fight for what they believe is right. Men like Jim.

She had no right to take their lives. The deaths of the landing party could be seen as self-defense, but that excuse wasn't going to hold up if she destroyed the fleet as well. She couldn't let her desire for revenge cause any more harm than it already did. If she did, Jim would never forgive her for it. If she did, she wouldn't deserve it anyway.

Kerrigan silenced her guns and held back the leviathans. A few minutes later, the Dominion fleet escaped without any further loses. Sure, she had won, but the victory felt bittersweet at best. What was she becoming? Maybe Lassara was right about her after all.

Her body gently sagged into the sand, exhausted from the physical and mental abuse it had to endure in the past few hours. She really needed a cold shower right now…

**Science Lab, Bucephalus, in the shadow of L-540's Moon**

Valerian nervously paced around the empty lab, staring at this accursed memory crystal. He and the other officers had tried and considered many different plans to find the Zerg queen, but only one of them seemed to be working: tracking the White Star and her fleet. Unfortunately, it was also, by far, the most flea-brained and dangerous plan the crown prince had ever come up with. He had taken a huge risk following Morrigan here, but his choices were limited and time was running out. Kerrigan needed to get this crystal one way or the other. She had to see this before she destroyed humanity in her quest to kill his father. After seeing what had happened, Valerian's fears had only intensified. Not only had the Zerg managed to defeat the massive army Morrigan had thrown at them, they also took out two of their capital ships with a weapon that left the Bucephalus' captain voiding his bowels.

The crown prince had taken every precaution he could. He had directed the ship to the far side of the planet's moon, away from the cross-fire. This, along with the fact that they were minimizing their emissions as much as possible and using a probe to watch the ensuing battle, would keep the Bucephalus hidden as long as possible. In theory, anyway. The captain warned him that a determined opponent would find them eventually and the Zerg were nothing if not determined. Therefore, he ordered much of his fleet to stay at the edge of the system. If things would go south, they would be there in a few hours. The Bucephalus was a tough ship. She'd hold together. Nevertheless, Valerian ordered everyone with families off the ship and replaced much of the marine detail with resocced death-row inmates. Should the worst come to pass, they'd leave no widows and orphans behind.

Having to follow Morrigan, of all people, had complicated things greatly. The crown prince knew that the general would blow his ship apart if they were spotted, but the White Star seemed more interested in the Zerg on the planet below. Unfortunately, that made it impossible for Valerian to contact Kerrigan via the radio. Assuming they could reach her in the first place, she'd be far to suspicious to trust another Dominion official after she having slaughtered an army of them. Even if he came alone, she'd probably kill him just to be sure. His last name alone would probably be enough of a justification.

Indeed, there was only one thing he could do. A plan so risky he'd never even considered it if times weren't as dire as they were. Narud, or whoever he was working for, could move out any second and every moment Kerrigan had her broods aimed at the Dominion humanity's chance of survival grew just a little smaller.

Nova entered the lab and noticed the extremely worried look on the prince's face. While she had noticed that everyone, herself included, had been rather on edge lately, Valerian had seemed more worried than the other crewmembers. She figured that whatever he had planned, Nova was probably going to play an important part in it. Still, it was rather odd that he did it here, rather than on the bridge. Something told her that she really wasn't going to like it.

"You called, your highness?"

"I did." He stated before taking a deep breath. "Nova, you know we need to find a way to get this crystal down to Kerrigan, right?"

"Yes…" He was dancing around the issue, Nova realized. That couldn't be good news.

"Right, well, the engineers and I have been trying to think of a way to deliver it. We can't use parachutes or small drones. The atmosphere is too tumultuous and we cannot be sure if the package will arrive unharmed. Hence, they have repurposed one of our dropships and out-fitted it with a cloaking device and a set of special engines that can survive the sandstorms. It will allow us to send in a team of soldiers to act as our delivery boys…"

"Respectfully, my lord, that's crazy! Did you see what she did to Morrigan's fleet? If we land a squad of soldiers, they'll be slaughtered on the spot!"

"Somehow, I doubt that." The prince said, trying his best to appear confident in front of the ghost. "If she wanted all the humans dead, why didn't she chase after them?"

Nova calmed down, seeing that the prince had a point. "Still, that could mean any number of things. Maybe Morrigan's army did a good number on her. Maybe she doesn't think they're a threat anymore. We can't assume she won't kill our guys the second they set foot on the planet."

"Indeed, we can't. And we won't." The prince took another deep breath before continuing. Nova felt her body tense. He was about to drop a bombshell and she knew she wasn't going to like it. "A squad of soldiers will be spotted and destroyed, but a single ghost operative, using stealth, can deliver this into Kerrigan's lair without being spotted."

Nova's face turned white. She knew exactly who that operative was going to be. "My lord, you can't be serious! A lone operative without backup in an unmapped location…If I get spotted, they'll…"

"I am no stranger to the Swarm's treatment of unwanted guests, Nova." Valerian said sternly. "I have included a recorded message with the crystal that explains everything to Kerrigan. You won't even need to talk to her. Just get in there, drop the package off somewhere where she will find it, and get out. The Zerg won't even know you were there."

"My psi signature…"

"Would be noticed under normal circumstances, but I have ordered a special, high-powered dampener that slots right into your suit. Best we can come up with. Renders you almost completely undetectable by psychics until you turn it off. When you do, your powers return to you in less than a second. Combined with your suit, it turns you into a ghost, literally. Do _not_ ask where I got it from." The prince did an admirable job trying to sell Nova a suicide mission. Unfortunately for him, Nova was a psychic and could easily pierce past Valerian's flimsy mental defenses. It seemed that he was just as unsure about this as she was. While it was somewhat endearing that the crown prince himself was genuinely worried about her, it didn't change the fact that he was still asking her to go on a bloody suicide mission. Noticing Nova's hesitation, the prince said: "Look, I've called in every favor I had. Yes, it's dangerous, but I have made every tool available to you to help you see this through to the end. I won't allow you to die down there."

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm not worried about death. We both know that that isn't the worst the Zerg can do to me. Even if it works, it's a long shot at best."

"I…know what can happen if this goes wrong." Valerian lowed his head. "I can't force you to do this. Actually I can, but I won't. You're more of an expert in this than I am. If you really think this can't possibly work, then I have no right to make you go down there. However, if you can't do this, then help me find another way. We've exhausted every alternative and you're the only ghost I have skilled enough to have any hope of pulling it off."

The prince had to be commended on one thing: he had mastered the 'you kicked my puppy' voice. Also, as much as Nova wanted to deny it, he was right. The mission was crucial and there was no other way to get the crystal into Kerrigan's hands, as far as she could think off. The prince was taking no chances: he had brought in every toy the Dominion had access to.

"I…I'll do it."

"Thank you. I won't forget this." Valerian solemnly promised. "Just drop of the package and get back safe."

"I'll come back, alright. I'm just not sure if you'll like me when I do."

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

Morrigan had failed. The spies the emperor had 'smuggled' aboard his ship just brought him the news. Mengsk pounded his fist in frustration. That mutant bitch had decisively beaten him, not just one, but _thrice_. He was rather glad that she couldn't contact him like she did at the end of the Brood War. Arcturus wasn't sure he could keep his composure if he saw her smug face again.

He still had one ace up his sleeve, though. Maybe assassination would succeed where brute force could not. To the emperor's surprise, Valerian had managed to find the Queen of Blades as well. Why his son wanted to find her, he didn't really care. The boy had gotten in way over his head and was now running around the sector trying to fix his mistakes. There was little point in contacting him. Valerian was convinced he was doing the right thing and had apparently developed a knack for persuading people to join him on his crusade. However, this did provide the emperor with an unique opportunity. There just so happened to be a very useful mole on the crown prince's flagship.

Throughout history, many people have wondered what would make the ultimate assassin. Some thought it was stealth. Others, skill. Arcturus Mengsk knew he had the answer, however. After all, what could stop an assassin if no one, not even the assassin themselves, knew what they were about to do?


	48. Chapter 48

**L-540**

Nova was hurled into her restraints for the fifth time in the past three minutes. The dropship she was taking down to the surface was being thrown around like a ragdoll, in spite of the specialized engines and the pilot's skill. It felt like a rollercoaster ride from hell. Nevertheless, it was better than the alternative: the storm would have shredded a normal dropship by now.

The ghost performed a last minute inspection of her gear. Her Crius suit was in order, it's advanced psi-augmenter, fresh out of the labs, allowing her to cloak almost indefinitely. Her dampener and the other upgrades slotted in nicely. She was probably wearing enough Dominion tax-payer credits to field a battlecruiser. How the crown prince got away with expenses like these…

Her rifle and side-arm were cleaned and tested, although Nova prayed she didn't have to use them. Even a ghost of her capacity wouldn't last long against an army of angry Zerg alone. If things did go sour, a few flash-bang grenades would buy her the time she needed to get out. Hopefully. Needless to say, she was in no hurry to find out.

As far as Nova could remember, which wasn't that much thanks to the memory wipes, this was certainly her most dangerous mission yet. How did Valerian manage to talk her into this? All this trouble for a stupid Protoss crystal and the apocalypse. She padded her left pocket. The package was still there. It better be; the fate of the universe depended on it. All Nova had to do was getting that thing to Kerrigan without getting brutally murdered, or worse…

Finally, the dropship opened its hatch. According to the pilot, they were only ten feet above the landing zone. Though only a drop of ten feet, Nova couldn't even see the ground beneath her. The storms were picking up and the pilot couldn't get any closer under these conditions. The only way down was, literally, a leap of faith. She feared it wouldn't be her last. Letting out a curse, she jumped down.

The instant she cleared the dropship, her suit was bombarded by the vicious sandstorm. Nova thanked her lucky star for her suit and its build-in mask and re-breather. Even if the air wasn't toxic, breathing it directly would have turned her lungs into sausage meat in a matter of moments. After a few seconds, she landed on the ground without any problems. Challenge number two: trying to find your way through a blinding sandstorm. Turning the dampener off for now, she reached out with her mind, trying to find Zerg while hiding herself from them. A useful trick all ghosts are encouraged to learn. Soon enough, she found a group of drones scavenging resources and decided that they were her ticket in. After all, the Zerg probably didn't have a hive here (even Zerg couldn't last long in this climate without protection, right?) and would have to return to some sort of sheltered hive cluster soon enough.

Drones, while potentially vicious fighters and capable watchmen, completely ignored the cloaked ghost as they went about their business. After about fifteen minutes of an activity that looked like chewing at rocks, the creatures gathered up their spoils (more rocks) and went on their way. Putting the dampener in one of the lower settings to protect herself, Nova quietly followed, staying as close to the drones as possible without being noticed. The creatures soon scurried towards some sort of entrance into the mountain. The ghost briefly contemplated going in. If she did, there was no easy way out any more. She'd jump right into the lion's den. While drenched in barbeque sause. To make matters worse, she could feel Kerrigan's presence coming from within, even through the low-powered dampener. The Zerg Queen had become very powerful and made no attempt to hide it. Then again, Nova wouldn't have bothered either if she had an army of Zerg at her call.

The drones were entering through some sort of airlock-like structure. Figuring that that would be her best chance, she jumped in right behind them. For a few agonizing seconds, she had to stand mere inches away from the creatures before the inner doors finally opened, trying not to touch them or make any noise. Chastising herself for taking such a risk, Nova pushed on with her gun in hand. Destination: the massive psychic signature that shone like a beacon. She turned her dampener to a higher setting. The closer she was to Kerrigan, the higher the possibility of detection and she didn't want to take any chances.

As Nova briefly hid behind a wall, waiting for a patrol to pass, she noticed the rather strange and (fittingly) alien architecture of the structure she was in. Everything was organic: the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. Though it was hard to see in the darkness (the Zerg didn't need much light to see where they were going, it seemed), this place was certainly not made of natural rock. As time went on, she got this terrible feeling that she running inside a massive Zerg creature rather than a regular hive. In the lion's maw, rather than the den, so to speak.

Her thoughts were shattered by a clawed hand grabbing her from behind and forcing her into the nearest wall. Before she could grab one of her weapons, she could feel the cold barrel of a gun pushed against her chest.

"Hah, I knew one of you tried sneaking in with the drones!" Spoke a calm, inhuman voice. "Thought you could sneak past old Tiberias, didn't you? Years of training and you're still so stupidly predictable. Kinda shameful if you ask me." A very large figure began to obstruct Nova's view. That gun would be awfully helpful right about now…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, deary." He said as he noticed the ghost reaching for a weapon. "I know you spooks are fast, but I'm pretty sure I can pump you full of lead long before you can pull that gun of your back." She looked at the being holding her captive: an eight feet tall infested Terran with a nasty grin beneath his mandibles. Just what this day needed. As strong or capable as that…thing may believe himself to be, Nova was still a ghost. The best in the Dominion, to be precise.

"You know, I can dominate your mind and make you blow your own brains out. Maybe I'd jam your gun, without you even realizing it. Or, even better, I could fry your mind in a heartbeat. I think it's in your best interest to just let me go and pretend you didn't see me."

The infested Terran didn't seem impressed. "One: mind-controlling Zerg never works. It's like a universal law or something: it always bites the controller in the ass somehow. Two, I can bludgeon pretty hard. Three…" He grabbed a small spherical object from his back. Nova wondered if he had pockets in his carapace. "This is the Zerg equivalent of a frag grenade." He squeezed the top of 'grenade' and it began to glow softly. "You cook my mind, I'll drop the grenade, it goes 'boom'. Do you think you're strong enough to push five hundred pounds of solid me off of you before it blows?"

"Well, yes, actually." Nova cheekily smiled underneath her mask. The Zerg wouldn't be able to see it, but her frighteningly playful tone wouldn't go unnoticed. "Tell me, aren't you afraid of dying?"

"No, why should I?" He stated matter-of-factly. "If I die, I die. The Swarm loses a man, but I can probably be replaced the next time the Dominion tries to attack us again. If you die, the Dominion loses one of its precious ghosts. Do you know how many infestible humans there are in the sector, or better yet, in the Dominion military?" The ghost shook her head. "Well, neither do I, but I'm sure there are more infestible humans than there are psychic humans. We've become increasingly more efficient at recruiting…"

"If you're trying to get me to sign up, I'll pass."

"Really? We have great dental care, you know." To emphasize his point, he grinned widely, revealing a mouth full of very sharp-looking teeth. Nova wondered if he was trying to scare her or telling a joke. "No? A pity."

The ghost was here on business, however. Engaging in a little verbal warfare with a Zerg may be very entertaining, but it wasn't the reason why she was here. Wherever, or whatever, here was. "This is all a lot of fun, but I'm here on business. Crown Prince Valerian of the Dominion has charged me with delivering a package to your Queen. Take me to her." Barking orders may not be the smartest thing to do in this situation, but her options were somewhat limited at this point. If she tried anything, she'd have to kill the giant infested human holding her into the wall. Doing so would probably compel every Zerg on the planet to hunt her down like a dog. Nova really didn't want to meet Kerrigan after what happened on Char. Hopefully the mask and the dampener would hide her true identity from the Zerg leader.

The Zerg looked at her rather incredulously. "Really now? What's in the package?"

"That's above your pay-grade."

The infested Terran laughed in her face. "Oh, this is rich! I guess if I show up at the imperial palace with a 'package' and ask for an audience with the emperor, the guards will just let me through, right? No questions asked? I mean, it's not like I could hide a nuke in it or anything…" As much as the creature was testing Nova's patience, he had a point. "Just what I thought. Now, give me one good reason…" He suddenly stopped talking. His softly glowing eyes started to move around like he was looking at someone else in the room. "You've got to be kidding me. She's…Of course, my lady." The creature let out a long drawn-out sigh. Kerrigan must have been giving him orders. "Well, looks like you got your wish. I'm to escort you to the Queen. Try anything and I'll rip your legs off." Without missing a beat, he pulled Nova's rifle off her back and shouldered it. "Oh, and I'll be taking that from you, if you don't mind. Well, off you go."

Using his original weapon, a modified C-14 of sorts, he motioned the ghost ahead. This was not the way Nova had hoped the mission would go, but the package would be delivered regardless. At least the infested Terran forgot to frisk her properly. If things went bad, she still had her hidden side-arm.

"By the way," The ghost asked. "How did you find me? My cloaking device was working fine…"

The Zerg pointed to a small, eye-like object on his shoulder. "Ocular parasite. You lot aren't the only one who get nice toys every now and then. That, and a lot of luck."

"Funny. Luck's usually on my side."

"Maybe, maybe not. Still, makes you wonder if there's some hidden hand trying very hard to bring us together…"

After walking for what appeared to be an hour, the two entered a room behind some sort of toothed door. Nova didn't know if it was some sort of decoration or the mouth of another creature. Her guard said it was a leviathan, a large, battle-cruiser sized creature. Quite frankly, she didn't really want to know for sure. Zerg 'architecture' wasn't something you should think too much about. Eventually they found Kerrigan cleaning her gun in a small, relatively well-lit 'room' where the creep had been removed. A very minimalistic throne room, if the ghost was to judge.

"Kerrigan, I presume?" Nova tried to be as calm and polite as possible. It might increase her chances of survival if the Zerg Queen recognized her.

"That would be me." Calmly, Kerrigan slid her weapon's barrel into place. She seemed tired, and not just physically. Her suit seemed badly damaged and Nova could see small patches of green and brown through the holes in the armor. Her eyes seemed to have lost most of the fire they had when they last met. Nova could tell she wasn't meeting the Zerg queen at her finest. Given the Dominion attack earlier that day, that wasn't very surprising. Still, the former human looked like she badly needed a memory wipe…

The Zerg queen got up and started inspecting her guest. Nova tensed up, praying that she wouldn't discover the ghost's identity. "Have we met before? You look familiar."

"Could be. We get memory wipes every now and then." The ghost lied. Thankfully, her ruse seemed to be working. She could feel Kerrigan brushing against her mind, but with the dampener turned up to full power, even the Zerg queen wouldn't be able to get through.

"Fair enough. So, my associate told me you're here to deliver a package from Valerian Mengsk…"

"That is correct."

"He also says that Valerian orchestrated the invasion of Char, tricked Raynor into looking for the artifact, and then betrayed them when he no longer needed Jim's help." Nova felt her heart skip a beat. Kerrigan seemed to notice it too. The queen wasn't entirely wrong about Valerian, but things had changed over the past few weeks. Of course, try convincing someone that locking up their boyfriend was just a big misunderstanding…

The ghost took the package out of her pocket. "This box contains a recording from his royal highness explaining everything, as well as a Protoss memory crystal recovered from the Hyperion. We thought you'd be interested."

Judging by Kerrigan's expression, she was. The light in her eyes was shining again when the Raiders' ship was mentioned. She grabbed the box and took it to a table-like structure that she'd been using as a workbench. Before the Queen could open it, the larger infested Terran stopped her. "My lady, think about this. She's an assassin. There could be a bomb in there."

"Tai, if this is Raynor's Ihan crystal, I need to see this. If it was an assassination attempt, she would have made her move already."

"Maybe Mengsk figured you'd think that and is waiting for you to try and use it. Then, the ghost will spring into action and try to shoot you when your back is turned."

"I'm standing right here!" Nova said, offended. Fair enough, ghosts may not be the most trustworthy individuals in the sector but that doesn't mean they're _always_ out to kill you. The two Zerg seemed completely distracted, however, and ignored their guest. The ghost reached for the button on her suit that controlled the dampener and turned it off.

"Or maybe Valerian would figure that we'd figure this could be an assassination and knows better than to try it. If she makes a move, I'll pull off her head. This is too important. I think it's worth the risk." Kerrigan followed her statement with a glare, cowing her subordinate into submission.

While the Zerg were busy worrying about whether or not the package was some sort of trap, Nova felt her hand reaching for her side arm. That didn't make any sense, she thought. Contrary to what the Zerg may be thinking, she wasn't here to kill anyone. Why would she need a weapon? When the ghost tried to resist, she felt, in her mind, a pain not unlike someone setting your head on fire.

A sudden realization entered the ghost's mind. It was the implants, of course. Every ghost was outfitted with various implants that prevented them from disobeying orders or turning on their superiors. Someone just activated hers.

Nova tried resisting, but it felt like her own body refused to cooperate. Years of ghost training teaches someone to obey orders without question. Conditioning and brain-panning do the rest. Eventually, obedience becomes a reflexive response, one you can't fight even when you want to. The implants make use of that to literally hard-wire compliance into their operatives. At that point, you're little more than a machine, one the Dominion uses up until there's nothing left…

Conditioning or no, it didn't matter. Kerrigan was too damn important. She couldn't die yet, even if some short-sighted Dominion officer thought otherwise. If Nova could slow herself down, maybe the Zerg could…

"Gun!" The larger Zerg yelled. Almost instantly, he turned around and tried to charge the unwilling would-be assassin. Nova's bullets were easily stopped by the creatures carapace, so she tossed him aside into a nearby wall with the force of an invisible truck. This brought Kerrigan the time she needed to telekinetically hurl a nearby box of spare ammo at her attacker, followed by the strongest psionic blast she could muster. The ghost easily dodged the projectile, but took the full force of the blast.

Before she could recover, Nova felt a blow to the back of her head. The world went black around her as she faded into unconsciousness.


	49. Chapter 49

**Leviathan, L-540**

"So, you figured that they figured that we figured that they wouldn't send an assassin, right? Well, guess they didn't figure that, did they..."

Tai slowly pulled himself back on his feet, holding onto the walls in order to maintain his balance. The ghost's psychic blast hit him a lot harder than he would like to admit. Other Zerg massed outside the room, drawn to the commotion. Kerrigan ignored them, focusing on her unconscious captive. There was something off about her, the Zerg queen thought. She seemed strangely familiar. What worried Kerrigan even more were the few thoughts she could pull out of the ghost's mind before Cain knocked her unconscious. The assassin was…conflicted, somehow. As if she didn't want to kill Kerrigan, but couldn't stop herself from doing so. All this gave the queen a nasty feeling of déjà vu.

Kerrigan carefully pulled of the ghost's mask. To her horror, it revealed a face she recognized: This was the exact same ghost that tried to kill her back on Char.

It didn't make any sense. Kerrigan could feel the assassin hesitate, and thoughts didn't lie, not to a psychic of her caliber. This girl didn't want to kill her. Then why would she even…

"Izsha, how does the Dominion control its ghosts? Can they override someone's free will?"

"They use implants, conditioning, and memory wipes, mainly. As far as we know, that is. Naturally, the Dominion is not very forthcoming with the details." The adjutant replied. "Now that you mention it, I detected a brief energy spike from the ghost's suit before she started shooting, localized at its long-range transmitter. It is quite probable that she had no intention of killing you, but someone overrode her free will and forced her to do it anyway."

"Makes sense." Tiberias interjected. Poor bastard was still shacking on his legs. "Dominion knows you're a telepath. If she knew about her true mission, she could have unintentionally tipped you off. They make up a bogus story about some peace offering and hit the ghost's mind-control button when we turn our backs to her. It nearly worked, too."

A young ghost is told to undertake a dangerous mission that could end a war. She trusted her commanders with her life, but once she had served her purpose, the commanders betrayed her for their own, selfish gains. In the end, she ended up at the mercy of the Swarm. It could have been Kerrigan's story. Why, it _was_ Kerrigan's story. Seeing this happen again to someone else made her blood boil.

"Izsha, can you say where that signal came from?"

"Negative, mistress. However, we have detected a Dominion warship in the shadow of this planet's moon. It is the Bucephalus, the flagship of the Dominion fleet. The vessel is currently flying under the command of Prince Valerian Mengsk."

That couldn't be a coincidence. Like father, like son, Kerrigan thought. Ideas of all the horrific things she could do to him popped into her mind. "Take the leviathan out into space. I want to have a personal word with the 'great' crown prince."

Before they could leave, however, Tiberias brought another matter to her attention. "Uhh, my lady? What should we do with her?" He said, while pointing to the incapacitated ghost. "You know, we can put her to good use. I suggest we let Abathur go to work on her. We could always use another psychic…"

_Not going to happen_. Kerrigan knew how the story ended for her: four years of bloodshed, destruction, and misery. She would probably never recover from what happened to her. She was _not_ about to let that happen to anyone else on _her_ watch. Even the thought…

She calmed herself down before replying. The Zerg inside her believed that Cain was right, but she'd never be able to forgive herself if she put anyone else through the same torment she had been. Of course, the other Zerg didn't need to know that. "If we go around infesting people, the humans will use that as proof that we're still the greatest evil in the sector. I'd like to avoid fighting a crusade, thank you very much. No, we'll make do without her." The other Zerg seemed to buy her reasoning, much to Kerrigan's relief. "What is her condition anyway?"

"Stable, though unconscious, mistress." Izsha immediately replied. "She has a severe concussion, but is otherwise physically fine, as far as I can tell. I suspect it will be a few hours before she awakens."

"Will she try to kill us when she does?"

"Uncertain. The combination of psychic feedback and physical trauma will almost certainly have damaged her controlling implants. It is unlikely that the Dominion will still be able to control her remotely anymore. If she attempts to kill anyone, it will be of her own free will. Nevertheless, I suggest removing them as soon as possible. Long term damage from the malfunctioning implants is not out of the question."

"Can't we just remove them ourselves? I know I had some implants before, and they were removed some time after the Overmind…'found' me."

"You were already assimilated into the Swarm when they were removed, mistress. Zerg are more resilient than humans are and have a far higher chance of surviving such a procedure. We do not have the expertise or ability needed for such a delicate operation. Not on a human anyway."

The Raiders probably would. Another excuse to see Jim again. Good. However, there was still a prince that needed to be gruesomely murdered. "Tell Me'dea to put her somewhere safe. We'll go find the Raiders after we deal with Valerian. I want some answers."

**Hyperion, L-540 System**

"I still can't believe it." General Warfield muttered as he read through the scan data. "An entire battlefleet with Morrigan in command scared off in less than a day. Look at these droppods! She must have fought off a massive army all by herself."

"Developing a crush, general?" Horner jested.

"Nah, I prefer blondes myself, captain." The general replied, aware of the captain's little joke. "Still, you have to admit that what she pulled off was pretty impressive. I mean, Morrigan was crazy, but he was one of our best when it came to Zerg. Heck, if she were still human, she'd be a lot more than a lieutenant by now."

"Yes, I suppose it was impressive…" Horner replied with a hint of worry in his voice.

"You still think she'll turn on us."

"I think it's a real possibility and that we'll be in big trouble if she does. As a revolutionary's rule of thumb, don't stir up anything you can't put down later. As far as allies go, Kerrigan scares me more than anyone else ever had. God, I almost begin to understand Raynor's obsession with the bottle."

"Try to relax a little, Horner. Or at least pretend if you can't. Soldiers get nervous when their commanders spend a lot of time worrying."

Horner had to chuckle. Warfield was right, as usual. It was good to have him around. Horner may be a good captain, but leadership of the Raiders as a whole was something he still wasn't very good at on his own, especially in times like these. The Raider fleet emerged from the previous battle heavily damaged. One ship had gone down and all the others were damaged as well. The Hyperion was pretty much being held together by duct-tape and prayers by now. It wasn't anything the engineers couldn't fix, but repairs like that would take time, especially without a shipyard. Needless to say, they were in no shape for any real combat right now.

The holographic table beeped again. Another contact. "Dominion warship… Where did that thing come from? I thought they all pulled out."

"Don't know, sir. It's very feint." One of the officers replied. "No warp signature, the engines are cold and life-signs are rather low… Looks like it's running on a skeleton crew."

"It must have been here for a while, hiding like us. Cold objects in space are easily missed." Warfield said. "Still, having such a small crew on a ship that size isn't a good idea, especially when you're near a Zerg-infested planet. Can you get the ship's name?"

"Just a second, sir…Bucephalus, sir. Valerian Mengsk's flagship."

The general blinked. "What in the seven hells is the crown prince doing out here all by himself?"

"Better yet, why didn't he run with the rest of the fleet?" Horner wondered. "If Kerrigan could stop an entire fleet, a single battlecruiser isn't going to make a difference. He'd know that, right?"

Warfield paced around for a bit, thinking. "Unless he isn't trying to fight her… If he was a part of the invasion force, he would have fled already. I know Valerian, he usually tries to talk his way out of things if he thinks he can convince his opponent. Kerrigan already saved our lives once. Maybe that's all the proof he needed to realize she's not beyond reason."

"General, if he wants to talk, why hide from her?"

"So the Zerg won't blow his ship out of the sky?" Warfield replied, bluntly.

"Fair enough, but that doesn't explain why Valerian would even want to talk with the Zerg. If the people found out about his dealings with them, his reputation would be ruined."

"He would if he knows what we know. He locked us up because he thought we were a danger to the Dominion and I didn't have the proof to convince him otherwise. The Dominion stole all your data and the scientific doodads you've collected, haven't they? How much you want to bet at least one of them contained information on the Hybrids? If he looked at any of those, he'd realized that the Zerg are necessary for our survival."

The general had a point, Horner conceded. "If that's true, Warfield, then he might not be our enemy. We should talk to him before Kerrigan does." Enemy of otherwise, the captain knew a civil conversation only works if both sides are willing to sit down and talk. "Somehow, I don't think she'd feel very inclined to talk with anyone named 'Mengsk'."

As if the Hyperion's adjutant was reading the captain's mind, it said: "Warning: class 10 Zerg flier, designated 'Leviathan', detected on intercept course with the Dominion battlecruiser 'Bucephalus'. Warning: class 11 psionic waveform detected. Zerg flier 'Leviathan' and Dominion battlecruiser 'Bucephalus' have engaged one another. Caution is advised."

The bridge officers watched the ensuing battle, if it could even be called such a thing. A single Terran battlecruiser, even the flagship of the Dominion fleet, was no match for the massive Zerg creature. However, rather than tearing the ship in half, the leviathan simply destroyed its weapon emplacements and 'docked' alongside it. Zerg life-signs started to spread along the hull.

"They're boarding the ship." Horner thought out loud. "This is getting out of control. Adjutant, call the Zerg, or anything with a transmitter. Tell them to stand down, dammit! Stand down!"

**Bucephalus, in the shadow of L-540's Moon**

Too easy, Kerrigan thought to herself. Boarding this ship was a joke. As powerful as the laser batteries and point defense turrets were, they couldn't hope to bring down a leviathan on their own. Thanks to Izsha, the communication systems were quickly jammed, rendering them useless. When they tried calling for help, no one would hear them. A few well-aimed pokes from the creature's tentacles, and the ship was all but helpless. She could have ordered the ship destroyed, but that would destroy her prize: the Crown Prince of the Dominion.

Once the Zerg got on-board, resistance quickly evaporated. The marines were putting up a valiant defense, but they were outnumbered and hopelessly outmatched. Kerrigan ordered everyone who put down his weapon to be spared and genuinely tried not to kill if she could avoid it. However, as time went by, holding back quickly became impossible. Most of the marines seemed to be resocs, charging into battle regardless whether or not the odds were against them. If they really had a death wish, who was she to deny it to them?

Some part of the Zerg queen seemed to enjoy picking men in full power armor off the ground and crushing them like insects. Kerrigan couldn't be bothered to force it back. She would have Mengsk's head, even that meant settling for his son. Nothing would distract her from her prey. Not even her own inner conflicts.

Eventually, she found herself on the bridge, face-to-face with Valerian. The prince tried to maintain his composure, hiding behind his shiny medal and fancy uniform. His clothes may have been a lot more impressive than Kerrigan's tattered environment suit, but he wasn't fooling anyone. It wouldn't take a psychic to see he was mere seconds away from wetting himself. In the eyes of the Zerg queen, he was weak. Pathetic. A child, barely of age to hold a gun, put in a commanding position because of his bloodline, rather than his merits. She would probably be doing the universe a favor by removing him from existence.

Valerian tried to speak, but Kerrigan cut him off by telekinetically grabbing him by the neck, lifting him a few inches of the ground while slowly suffocating him. "My parents taught me that it's rude to cut people off," She said, calmly. The queen could feel the boy's fear. Part of her was savoring every drop of it. "but I think they'd make an exception for you. They didn't like betrayers, and neither do I, as you can imagine. Especially when the betrayed happens to be someone I care about."

"Look…this is all…a little…misunderstanding…" The prince panted, gasping for air with every word.

"Oh, really? How stupid of me…" She replied, mockingly.

"Please…the package…Nova gave you…"

"Nova? The blond ghost that tried to give hand me an olive branch on your behalf? The one with a head full of mind-controlling implants? The one that tried to kill me, against _her own will_?! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, doesn't it?"

The prince said nothing. He just looked at her, completely stupefied. Kerrigan sifted through his mind, expecting some sort of swindle or trick. This was too big. There was no way he could be unaware of his top ghost being a time bomb, but she found nothing to convince her that he didn't. He genuinely had no idea what she was talking about…

Izsha called, relaying an urgent message. Captain Horner managed to contact her, asking them, in a firm and commanding tone, to 'stand down'. It was a good idea, standing down. Valerian wasn't his father, at least not completely. There was more to this than it seemed.

The queen reeled in the more aggressive, vengeful part of her mind and let Valerian go. He fell to the ground, clutching a nearby table while breathing heavily. She looked at herself. She was _this_ close to brutally murdering someone for a crime she wasn't even sure he committed in the first place. What the hell had gotten into her?

She really needed a cold shower…


	50. Chapter 50

_A/N 50 chapters and 50,000 views! WOOHOO!_

**Bridge, Bucephalus, In the Shadow of L-540's Moon**

Kerrigan walked towards the nearest communication console, never talking her eyes of the crown prince. If the Raiders wanted her to stand down, she'd comply. That didn't mean she was willing trust Valerian, at least not yet. Just to be safe, Tiberias had his gun trained on the prince's head. He may not be responsible for everything she accused him off, but that doesn't make him an innocent bystander. After turning the console on, the familiar faces of Horner and Warfield.

The general eyed Valerian almost immediately and angrily demanded that the prince explained himself. "Before we do anything else, I think you owe us all an explanation. Why the hell did you lock us up after Char? We were on your side, dammit! It would have been easy to knock the emperor off the throne. We both know he's got it coming, after all that has happened the past four years." The Hyperion's bridge officers cheered in agreement.

The crown prince picked himself up from the table, doing his best to maintain eye contact with the general in spite of Warfield's irritated glare. "What makes you think I wanted a violent uprising?" Shocks of surprise could be heard as the cheering began to die down. "Don't misunderstand me, I hate my father as much as you people do…"

"Somehow I find that hard to believe." Kerrigan interjected.

"…but I won't let humanity descend into a civil war to do it. My father can die, but the Dominion can't. Right now, he turned the Dominion into a system that completely revolves around him. If he were to disappear, the resulting power vacuum could plunge our species into anarchy. I cannot risk that, not with the Zerg Swarm still intact, not with alien powers out for our blood."

"So you would let your father's oppression continue?" Horner was visibly angry. A very rare state of mind for the usually up-tight captain to be in. "Ever heard of that old cliché: 'All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing'? Sometimes clichés are remembered for a reason."

"I had no intention of sitting on my hands, waiting for my father to die of old age. That is why I hired you to find the artifact for me. When the first piece was unearthed at Mar Sara, we realized it could be used to destroy the Swarm. I could have used that victory and Kerrigan's subsequent execution to marginalize my father's power." Valerian suddenly realized that he was standing in the same room as two rather annoyed Zerg. "Umm, it was nothing personal…"

"Riiiight…" Cain answered, menacingly playing with the safety switch on his rifle.

The crown prince continued, occasionally shooting a frightened glance at the Zerg. "I was hoping to use my newly-acquired influence to force my father to make concessions. Give away power, either to me or to other branches of the government. Contrary to what UNN may have said the past few months, his approval rating has been decreasing rapidly and his grip on the colonies, especially the fringe worlds, was growing weaker by the day. He would have had no choice but to agree. Slowly but surely, we would have been able to take away his power until the Dominion was a monarchy in name only."

"If that's what you wanted we've only helped you." Horner replied. "Our broadcast has pretty much destroyed your father's powerbase. Anyone still under the illusion that he isn't a tyrannical despot would have helped us kick him out. The colonies are begging for a new leader. Why did you want to get rid of us? That Morrigan fellow that's chasing us managed to down one of our ships, damage the rest of the fleet, and left Raynor himself stranded on Dead Man's Rock."

Kerrigan felt her rage boil in her chest. So that's why Jim wasn't with the Raiders. If he got hurt and that petty excuse for royalty is in any way responsible, there would be hell to pay.

"General Morrigan is beyond my control and he refuses to reason with me. Besides, do you know what you have done? Do you have any idea what you've let loose when you made that broadcast? The Dominion is falling apart, thanks to you. Most of the fringe worlds have declared independence and many core worlds will soon follow. The army is divided, and we're losing more men to desertion than the enemy. Unless something big happens, the Dominion will crumble in a few months. Now, I don't think that's a bad thing. I just don't know what is supposed to happen next. Tell me, does Raynor have a plan for a new government? Has anyone of you thought about what to do if you were victorious?" The only response was a series of blank expressions. "That's exactly what I was afraid of. I have looked to history for the safest way out to get rid of my father and found that a violent revolution will rarely lead to freedom. Chances are, you are going to end up as the next batch of tyrannical despots and the people will cheer when you are overthrown."

"Now that's not right. We're not…" The crown prince smiled when Horner started stammering. Time for the killing blow.

"Like the Emperor? How many would-be tyrants have said that, captain, right before they crowned themselves god-king? Tell me, how would you reunite the colonies? What if a colony doesn't want to join with you? How would you react when you start to disagree over what to do next? What about pro-old-regime elements that always remain after a violent insurrection? What if some other great leader comes along and challenges your authority? If your plan is 'let's kill Arcturus Mengsk and worry about the future later', then humanity is done for. The result will be years, if not decades of anarchy, probably resulting in another dictatorship or humanity's extinction at the hands of alien powers. I cannot let that happen, gentlemen. I dare not. Though it pains me to say it, had I known you were going to destroy my father's reputation in such a way, I would have tried to stop you. Since I couldn't, I did what I thought was the best way to ensure humanity's survival: destroying the Zerg and making sure you wouldn't be a threat anymore. I'm…sorry that it had to turn out like this, but you forced my hand."

The bridge fell silent. No one really knew how to respond. Valerian had a point: the Raiders really didn't have a plan other than 'kill Mengsk'. Raynor himself had admitted it to Horner several times over the years; the commander often said that it would be up to men like Horner to pick up the pieces when the smoke clears. Most of the men wanted to get rid of Mengsk, but never thought about what would happen next. They were doing the right thing, but for the wrong reasons. Only a few of them looked to the future and none of them had a clear plan.

Warfield finally broke the silence. "You were rather quick to turn onto me and my boys, kid…"

"You were always a man of honor, General. When you spoke so highly of Raynor and his men, I was afraid you would not be able to see things the way I do. When you proved me right after the battle…"

"I had become a threat, too."

"Unfortunately, yes. Though I doubt you'd still believe me, I want you to know that ordering your arrest is probably the hardest thing I've ever done…"

Cain shook his head and sighed. "Look, this is all very touching, but we're not looking at the big picture here. If this was just about humanity, then kiddo over here was right to put you lot behind bars. Now that we're done with the finger-pointing, we should get down to business."

"Tai's a bit insensitive, but he's right." Kerrigan said, while silencing her subordinate with a murderous glare. "The Zerg aren't the biggest issue here anymore. Those damned hybrids we found are."

"Exactly. We followed the trail to the Moebius Foundation and some messages sent by a 'Dr. Narud'. I'm sure you know him, Valerian." Horner stated accusingly.

"Not as well as I'd hoped. As far as I knew, the hybrid project was a program designed to protect the Dominion from the Zerg and the Protoss. Give us the strength to fight them on equal terms. We abandoned it a series of unsuccessful tests and an incident involving one of them being released by a certain rebellious element. He must continued it, however, probably in service to an unknown foreign power." The mention of Narud weighed heavily on Valerian's heart.

"The Umojans?"

"No. Someone used their long-range transmitters to send their reports into deep space, somewhere well beyond the sector. The recipient was almost certainly not a human faction. No one we know off has the technology to stay that far away from the Koprulu sector and still affect things here."

"Just like the artifact…" Tai stated, his voice thickening with worry. "Raynor's rogue Xel'Naga theory seems to fit better by the day…" He seemed to grasp his weapon a little more tightly than usual.

"Raynor thinks the Xel'Naga are behind this too?" Valerian said. "Well, that makes sense. I took the liberty of looking through the memory crystal we found when we…confiscated the Hyperion. The reason why I'm here is to make sure you, Kerrigan, saw it too. I hoped it would convince you to spare the Dominion and ready yourself and the Zerg for the Hybrid invasion."

Kerrigan sneered. "It that's so, why did the ghost you sent as a delivery girl try to kill me?"

"I don't know. I only know that I didn't order her to harm you. She's a telepath too, and I know she read my mind. Nova understood the importance of her mission. My best guess is that either my father or General Morrigan had some sort of hidden control measure implanted within her. Speaking of Nova, what happened to her? Is she all right?"

"We're taking care of her, don't worry." Kerrigan saw the prince's face turn pale and opted to explain herself a bit. "Not like that. We had to knock her unconscious. She's fine otherwise. She's not infested, if that's what you're thinking."

"Good." Valerian was visibly relieved, a fact that somewhat surprised the Zerg queen. Maybe he's not like his father after all…

"So, with that out of the way, what do we do now? I assume you have a plan of some sort of plan, don't you, 'your highness'?" Kerrigan asked. "You'd be quite the hypocrite otherwise."

"I propose we all build up as large an army as possible without using it on each other. We'll need all the strength we can muster if we are to defeat this new foe. I didn't expect the Raiders to be here, but I have to ask you to do the same. As for me, I will do everything within my power to hold the Dominion's army together and keep it from my father. When the time comes, hopefully there will be enough of the military left to do any good."

"A decorated Dominion general might help in that respect, pup." Warfield wasn't ready to put his trust in Valerian again just yet, but something told him the crown prince wasn't lying. Offering his help to the boy would enable him to keep an eye on things.

He was rudely interrupted by a slightly inhuman burst of laughter. "General, our dear friend Morrigan knows you're a part of the Raiders now and that you're working with us Zerg." Tai sat down in one of the chairs and put his feet on a nearby desk. "If I know Jack, and trust me, I do know Jack, he'll tell that to anyone willing listen to the second you contact anyone in the Dominion. Having the stink of Zerg corruption around you is more than enough to ruin your career and his majesty's recruitment opportunities. You know, we're leaving soon. This would be a great opportunity to make our withdrawal sound like a major victory. You can tell everyone how you 'stopped our nefarious plans', 'smote the enemies of man with your righteous fury', and 'sent the vile aliens running to their misbegotten maker'. Just be sure to forget to mention that Morrigan had any part in this." The others nodded in agreement. The people weren't that fond of the Zerg anyway, and a 'victory' here would seriously improve Valerian's public image. "Speaking of Jack, is there any chance you could make sure he won't come after us again? I'd rather not have to shoot him, if I can avoid it."

Kerrigan wondered what he meant by that. There was some history between them and she became increasingly worried that it might affect them sooner or later. Now was not the time to ask, though. She knew Tai well enough that he would never admit weakness in front of a human.

"I doubt that, but I'll do what I can. Now, if you'd excuse me, I'd like to change my pants. There are probably things you need to discuss." With that, the crown prince left. Kerrigan stared at the spot he stood five minutes ago, thinking. He wasn't like Arcturus at all, even when compared to the 'noble' Arcturus she remembered from the Sons of Korhal. The crown prince had an air of arrogance about him, but was much more capable than he seemed at first. What he lacked in strength of character, he made up for it in intellect and knowledge. He was more a scholar than a ruler, which ironically would probably make him a better emperor than his father ever was.

"Did he lie to us?" General Warfield asked her. "I can usually tell when he is, but I'd rather not take any chances."

"No, he didn't." The queen conceded. "Even if he was wearing one of those high-end psi-screens that emit some thoughts but block others, I would have been able to tell. I think he's being sincere with us. By the way, I picked up about a dozen or so survivors from your downed battlecruiser. I'll return them to you, along with Valerian's ghost. She might need some medical attention."

"Well, thanks. A pleasant surprise, for once."

"Speaking of surprises, what happened to Jim? Is he alright?"

Warfield laughed. "Oh, don't you worry about that old drunk. Commander Raynor is nothing if not persistent. If he was dead, the news would have been all over it by now.

"Good to hear. I'll be going to Dead Man's Rock to find him."

The smile on the general's face slowly vanished. "Look, let us handle him. A Zerg invasion of Dead Man's Rock might not be the best course of action. You've chased most of Morrigan's fleet back to the core worlds. Once we get our ships repaired, we'll pick him up immediately."

"You're in no shape to fight for a long time, General, and the Dominion has plenty of other fleets available. I understand your worries, but I _won't_ leave Jim to rot." With that, Kerrigan turned off the console. She needed Jim, more than any of the men realized. The fact that Warfield tried convincing her not to go angered her a bit. No matter, though. She wasn't part of his chain of command; she didn't need to follow his orders. Kerrigan could not bear the thought of Jim being in danger while the humans slowly glue their ships back together. He had to be rescued, as soon as possible. She would do as she saw fit, and no one would stand in her way.


	51. Chapter 51

_A/N Sheesh, I don't update for a week and you munchkins are already calling me out on it. I don't know if I should be flattered or annoyed._

_Just so that you know, I write when I have the time or the energy to do so and I'm a college student (the kind that doesn't sit around, drinking beer all day). Hence, my update schedule can be rather erratic. I cannot promise when the next update will come, but I can promise that it will come eventually. I WILL see this story finished._

_Anyway, for those of you who wanted to know why this update took so long, I had to write a report about the use of Fourier transformations in NMR spectroscopy. What's a Fourier transformation? I won't bore you with the details, but suffice to say it involves using an integral, two infinities, and an imaginary number IN A SINGLE EQUATION. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what gives ME nightmares…_

**Leviathan, High Orbit over L-540**

Kerrigan was cleaning her rifle again. Having barely used the weapon, it wasn't really necessary, but the simple, repetitive action usually calmed her down. Space flight had always annoyed her: long, boring voyages on a starship with very little to do. Even the Zerg Swarm didn't demand much of her attention right now. They weren't fighting anyone and most of the hives were able to take care of themselves. This lead to a lot of free time for the Zerg queen. Time that would inevitably be to think about the current situation. Cleaning her gun often took her mind of things, but not when there was so much to worry about.

She was worried. Worried about the Raiders, worried about the future, but above all, worried about Jim. Him being stranded on a hostile planet with no rescue in sight… The thought grated her soul. She needed him, now more than ever.

The discovery that Valerian wasn't quite as evil as he seemed was somewhat comforting. It was nice to have something resembling allies higher-up the chain of command. Still, it was difficult to see him as anything other than Arcturus' son. That particular grudge ran too deep to be forgotten so easily. Kerrigan also wondered how useful the crown prince could be in the long run. He had ambitious plans, but putting them into action is something else. It took a particular kind of pig-headed genius to challenge Arcturus directly, and Valerian didn't seem like the type who could pull it off. His heart may be in the right place, but he was tragically naïve. The queen thought it was unlikely that his plans would work out in the end. Arcturus is too smart to have his power taken away so easily.

Though they hadn't said so directly, Kerrigan was certain that the Raiders would agree with her on that. Still, there wasn't much they could do about it. They needed all the allies they could get, especially since no one knew exactly when, where, or how the hybrid army would strike. Apart from scouring the sector for clues and hunting down Moebius, there wasn't much they could do, especially when their fleet was nearly crippled in the previous fight. The Raider fleet would be able to move soon, but it would be some time before they were anywhere near battle-ready. Kerrigan gave them the coordinates of Marrakesh in case they needed a safe haven, but the Raiders politely declined. Just because they were allies, doesn't mean that they trusted each other, apparently.

Cain entered the room and quietly sat down in a corner. He seemed worried about something. "My lady, there is something we need to talk about…" His tone was almost apologetic, as if he was afraid what he had to say would anger Kerrigan.

Still, he knew better than to bother her if it wasn't important. "Okay, what about?"

"Well, it's about you, actually, and your behavior the past few days…"

Kerrigan could only roll her eyes. She knew where this was going and wasn't in the mood for it. "God, this is going to be a lecture, isn't it? I really don't feel like a lecture right now."

"You never feel like a lecture, my lady. If our roles were reversed, I'd feel the same way, but that doesn't mean you don't need to hear it."

Kerrigan put up her best 'I'm annoyed with you, please go away' glare, but the infested Terran didn't move an inch. "You're not going to take 'no' for an answer, are you?"

"No, my lady."

"You know, Cain, I don't see what I'm doing wrong. The Zerg Swarm is growing stronger by the day, we've managed to make alliances, as fragile as they may be, and we're well on our way of becoming as powerful as we were before the invasion. I really don't see the problem…"

"It's not your actions that has us worried. Your thoughts and emotions…"

"Wait, 'us'? Who's 'us'? What do you know about my thoughts?" She interjected. Kerrigan always assumed that the other Zerg couldn't read her mind. If she was wrong…

"Well, I'm no proper psychic like you, but we're all telepathically connected, remember? We Zerg can tell when one of our own is bothered by something, even if we can't say what. Privacy doesn't really exist here. I'm sorry for not mentioning it before, but…"

So they could sense emotional distress, but not actual thoughts. Not as bad as it could be, the queen figured. "It's alright. Just, what do you want?"

"It's just that you've been very quiet since we've left the Bucephalus. In fact, I can tell that this battle is rubbing you the wrong way. You had to kill a lot of people, and you're not bothered by it."

He was right about that. It bothered Kerrigan that she hadn't noticed it before. Cain didn't need to know that, however. "I'm an assassin, Tai. I wouldn't be very good at my job if I wasn't desensitized to violence. I thought you'd approve of that, not feeling too bad about killing humans."

"Well, I better do, since our body count is about as high as that of a large-scale natural disaster, but I know it still troubles you. Not the guilt, but the lack of it." He took a deep breath before continuing. "You know you should feel guilty about this, but you don't. You try to feel guilty about it, but you can't. It's as if the part of your soul responsible for empathy is being cut out, piece by piece. You feel like a part of you is fading away, and now you're wondering if you should throw me around the room for telling you this or break down in front of me and weep like a child."

Kerrigan could feel herself grow tense. It almost felt like he was reading her mind. She did have the feeling that there was something missing, and it was becoming harder to care for the people she was forced to kill with each passing battle. As time went on, she felt less akin to the humans, and more like one of the Zerg. As much as she was trying to tell herself that this wasn't the case, part of her knew this was happening and that there was no way to stop it.

"What do you want from me, Tiberias? Are you going to shoot me, take over the Swarm for yourself now that I'm too 'weak' to handle it myself?" At this point, she could barely contain the mixture of anger and sorrow boiling inside of her.

His eyes widened in surprise. "What? No, no, no, nothing like that! I promised you that we're going to teach you how to act like a Zerg. I can't expect you to know everything already. It would be rather hypocritical of me, wouldn't it? I mean, it took months for me to fully adjust to my new life as a Zerg. I can hardly expect it to be any different for you." Kerrigan calmed herself down. Of the many problems she had, mutiny apparently wasn't one of them. Not from him, anyway.

"So, explain. How did you adjust?" Kerrigan wasn't all that interested in his story. Cain wasn't exactly the most sane individual she had ever met and she really didn't want to end up like him. Still, he might say something useful, even if his advice will probably end up on the 'what not to do' pile.

"When I started out, Za'gara took it upon herself to teach me how to act like a Zerg. She was one of the first broodmothers your predecessor created and was eager to prove herself by not only raiding small Terran colonies, but by bringing more humans into the Swarm. I was the first unlucky bastard she caught who happened to retain his sentience after being infested, so I had the 'prestigious' honor of being her student."

"'Unlucky'? I thought you liked being Zerg?"

"Oh, I do, I just wish it was someone other than Za'gara who recruited me. Let's just put it this way: Before my recruitment, I was just a factory worker. I hadn't killed anything bigger than an insect and knew as much about war and fighting as I do about the old Earth. Za'gara, naturally, thought this was completely unacceptable, so she tried to desensitize me to violence by compelling me to sneak into a small Terran base, making me brutally rip the base commander's head off, then telling me to find my own way out. She was very much a 'succeed or die' kind of mentor."

"How did you get out?" Kerrigan knew from her training that escaping undetected from an assassination was one of the hardest situations an operative would encounter. She wondered how someone with no formal training whatsoever would handle it.

"I tried sneaking around in a cardboard box. It worked in an espionage video game I used to play as a child, so I thought it would work here. Turns out that real-life guards aren't quite as stupid as they are in games. When they discovered me, I tried talking my way out, but it's hard to convince a guard you're lost when you have pieces of his commander's brain stuck in your teeth. Eventually, I had to fight my way past them. I must have killed at least ten of them before they stopped chasing me. When I returned to the hive, I was having the same emotional difficulties you're having right now. When Za'gara found out, she picked me up with one of her talons, looked me square in the eye and said: 'You are one us now, not one of them. Your past life is irrelevant, as are your feelings for the humans. Do not pretend otherwise, for it will only cause you pain and weaken you. The Swarm has no place for the weak.' It took a while, but eventually I believed her." Not exactly the uplifting story Kerrigan was hoping for.

"Your point, Cain?"

"Za'gara was right about me in the end. Like it or not, the person I once was is gone now. I can spend my days hating the Swarm or lamenting my fate, but I'd just be wasting my time and energy. I can try and pretend that I'm still the same guy, but I'd only be fooling myself. You're no different. You know, as well as I do, that if you were ever to meet your past self somehow, the two of you would probably end up killing each other. My point is, part of you wants to hold on to the past. Let me tell you from personal experience: the harder you try to hold onto it, the more painful it's going to get when it inevitably slips through your fingers. No one ever became happy living the life they want instead of the life they had."

"That's going to be rather difficult, since the ghosts of the past are our only allies."

"Well, I'm not going to pretend that it's a flawless plan, but it's the best way to move on, if you ask me. Best way to get rid of ghosts like that: cut ties with them before they sneak in and drop a nuke on your head."

"Like you did with Morrigan?"

Cain suddenly became very quiet. Kerrigan figured that he hadn't entirely been practicing what he preached. She could hardly blame him, though. "I must admit, when I heard that they put him behind a desk, I was hoping that I'd never hear from him again. Jack is…was…a childhood friend of mine. Commanding, ambitious, smart. Bit of a jackass, at times, but he never crossed the line. He always wanted to join the military and it was almost certain that he would go far. When our colony was attacked, he was off-world hunting insurgents. As cliché as it may be, the sorry bastard blamed himself for our 'deaths'. We met again on a planet called Torus, a few months later. I was in charge of a small part of the invasion force, he was…a captain, I think, tasked with the counter-attack. By some twist of fate, we met face-to-face, though he didn't recognized me at first. I talked to him, even tried convincing him to surrender, when he realized who I was. When he saw me working for the enemy, presumably against my will, he…well…snapped. I spent the next three days alternating between retreating from the Dominion army and digging spikes out of my carapace. I found out how painful, figuratively and literally, it was to still hang on to my previous life. Things would have been easier if I just shot him, but I didn't. I couldn't. Za'gara reprimanded me for it, but forgave me because our goal there was to see what the Dominion was capable off. Research, basically. Needless to say that we got plenty of data from Jack's resulting rampage."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Still, I don't understand what that has to do with me."

"I had to find out a lot of things about the Zerg the hard way, my lady. Given our situation, I think it would be best if you don't have to. Please, think about this, for all our sakes."

He left, leaving Kerrigan to ponder what he said. She suddenly understood why so many humans thought death was preferable to infestation. Watching a man reduced to that…they may have had a point.

Still, Kerrigan knew she was a fighter. It would take more than bad luck and the hyper-evolutionary virus for her to lose herself to the Zerg. Perhaps it was hubris or false hope, but she felt more driven than ever to hold on to what little humanity she had left. She wouldn't allow herself become a shell of what she once was. Too many people would suffer if she did.


	52. Chapter 52

**Behemoth, Surface of L-540**

Nova slowly regained consciousness, softly groaning as she was greeted by a skull-splitting headache. She tried sitting up on the bed, but found that her body wasn't cooperating. Her head felt like it was about to fall off the rest of her body and she didn't even have her mask to keep it in place. What the hell happened? She remembered wearing a mask. At least she should have been; the air on this planet was nearly unbreathable. She didn't remember going to bed either, especially in one that felt so…squishy. Even if she had, the ghost knew better than to take a nap in the middle of a Zerg hive…

Terror consumed her mind as the realization began to sink in. Nova was in a Zerg hive. By the looks of the room she was in, she was probably in a prison cell of some kind. She had been captured, and the ghost knew all too well what happened to the unlucky souls that became prisoners of the Swarm. Without another thought, she tore of her gloves, praying to a god she'd never believed in that the skin underneath was still the same pale color that it was when she put them on. To her relief, it was, but that didn't mean that the Zerg hadn't done something else to her. Curiously enough, Nova realized, the Zerg hadn't tried to restrain her in any way. Not that they needed to: if the intel on Zerg infestation was anything to go by, they could turn you into a willing slave with ease. One little parasite and you'll obey their every directive like an adorable little puppy. That said, she didn't feel any different, apart from the headache, of course. Maybe the Zerg hadn't infested her after all. Or maybe they had become so good at it that they could do it without the victim noticing.

The ghost's heart skipped another beat when one of the 'doors' opened and a massive Zerg walked through. Queen class, if her memories were anything to go by. The creature was much bigger than it should be, though. While the Zerg hadn't bothered to restrain her, they had taken away her weapons. Frying the thing's mind psionically wasn't an option either, not with this headache she was having. Nova was trapped.

"What are you?! What did you do to me?!" In spite of her best efforts, her words sounded a lot more desperate than she had hoped they would. Why was she even trying to talk with the damn thing? Could it even talk back?

The creature looked back…quizzically? Zerg facial expressions were rather hard to judge. "I am Me'dea, broodmother and commander of the Zerg you see around you. You came here, claiming that you wished to converse with our queen. When you found her, an implant within your mind was activated, compelling you to attack her. You failed and were knocked unconscious. As per her majesty's orders, I took you here until you would wake up." It sounded similar to what little Nova could remember. However, it would be a cold day in hell when she took a Zerg's word on faith alone.

"Nothing else? You didn't happen to, say, turn me into an inhuman freak while you were at it?"

"The word 'freak' implies that you are different from most of you kind. Given your nature as a psychic, you were already a 'freak' from the moment you were born. As for whether or not you are still human, even the greatest philosophers cannot are uncertain of what makes one human or not. What makes you think I can answer that question or you?"

The creature's calm reply was infuriating to the ghost. "Stop dancing around the issue with your metaphysical bullcrap! You know what I meant. Did you infest me?"

"I dislike the term 'infest', at least in the fashion you are using it. A house that is infested by insects becomes less than it once was and will eventually collapse. A human 'infested' by the Zerg will become greater than he ever was before. Personally, I prefer the term 'assimilate'. It is far more accurate and does not sound like you are comparing us to mere pests. But, to answer your question: no, you are not infested. By her majesty command, you were not to be touched. It is my duty to obey her."

The 'broodmother's' answer made Nova feel a little better. According to Dominion intelligence, Zerg were supposed to be physically incapable of disobeying orders. If Kerrigan told the broodmother not to infest her, the creature would obey. She never thought she'd see the day that she'd owe the queen her life. Still, the creature could have been ordered to lie, or Dominion intelligence could have been wrong. "Why should I believe you?"

"Would the thought of deception have occurred to you we had made you Zerg?" Me'dea stated plainly.

"Fair enough. That headache I'm having, though…"

"You were bludgeoned on the head, dear. I am no expert on human physiology, but I think having a severe headache is a common result of such an injury. That, and the implants your masters used to control you are damaged. I would not be surprised if they contributed to your pain as well. Fear not, however. When we release you to the humans, they will make sure they are removed before they, or you, can cause any further harm."

Nova couldn't hide her surprise. "You're going to let me go, just like that?" Nova said, unable to hide her surprise.

"Telepaths are easily convinced if you are being truthful, and her majesty immediately saw you were not acting on your own free will. When she returns, she will ensure you are transported back to your ship. Prince Valerian, the one that ordered you to come here, was not the one that ordered her death, so you will be returned to him, unharmed."

"Alright. Well, thank you, I guess." If she was infested, the Zerg could make her their plaything whenever they wanted. Maybe this was some sort of sadistic ruse to keep her calm until her nails turned into claws and tentacles started to sprout from her head. It all seemed a little too good to be true. Nova was reluctant to believe the creature, but it wasn't like she could do anything else. There was no way out anyway. Without weapons, she couldn't even kill herself if it became necessary.

The creature stayed in the doorway, rubbing its 'hands' together somewhat nervously. "Is there something else you wanted to say?" Nova asked.

"As a matter of fact, there is. I have spent much of my life here, as custodian of this behemoth. This place has never been attacked before and only rarely have I been asked to contribute forces to the war effort. As a result, I have devoted a considerable amount of time trying to understand you, for the lack of a better way to spend the days. I find the human species very intriguing, umm…"

"Nova."

"Nova. Would you care to talk to me for a while? I have heard much from you from the other Zerg, but I have never spoken to a human before."

Nova was somewhat surprised. Why would a Zerg even care about what humans would think? Then again, curiosity is one of the hallmarks of sentience and this particular Zerg was intelligent enough to be considered as such. Chatting with the bug-eyed monsters was probably better than sitting around and staring at the walls, so why not? "Well, I've got nothing better to do. I'm not sure if I'm the right person to talk to, though. They don't let us ghosts socialize all that much."

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king and I do not believe you and I are as different as you might think."

"I beg to differ." Nova sneered at the thought. The idea that a Zerg was similar to her in any way seemed preposterous.

"If you insist. You are an unusual race, I must confess. Nova, the Swarm has encountered many different species over the millennia. All of which elevated to new levels of greatness, once they became Zerg. Judging by what some of the assimilated Terrans are capable off, I believe this is the same for humanity. Why do you continue to oppose us? Surely your leaders will understand that our peoples will become more when we join."

"Maybe because we like ourselves the way we are?"

"But there is a great deal of room for improvement. If you were perfect already, you would have succeeded in slaying our queen and we would not be speaking here today."

"And getting infested makes me perfect?"

"No, it does not, Nova. But personal experience has shown me that it is often a step in the right direction."

"Maybe so, but as flawed as I am, I'd rather not fix it by stripping away everything that makes me human. It's just…unnatural, no offence."

"All we do is elevate the species we find to their highest potential. Evolution is a natural process. One that we simply accelerate. You call our enhancements unnatural, yet you use machines to compensate for your own deficiencies. You wear clothing, because your skin cannot protect you from the elements. You wield weapons because your claws and teeth are virtually useless. As I understand it, the utilization of tools is no more natural than the enhancements I give to my brood when their performance is found lacking. Also, what do you think it means to be human, or what we do to make it go away? Does being 'human' truly mean anything, given the massive diversity found amongst your species."

The broodmother sure liked the hard questions, Nova thought before vocalizing her response. "Okay, I must admit that I don't know that much about inf…'assimilation' apart from what our intel tells us. From what I've heard, the Zerg drag someone away from their home and family and reprogram their mind and body into a form that suits them. They stick things in their victim's brain so that he or she can't disobey their orders, strip away every last shred of compassion and humanity before sending them off to kill people, with or without the victim's consent. If robbing someone of their soul is what call assimilation, I'll pass."

Me'dea sifted uneasily. The ghost wondered if the creature was insulted by the insinuation or feeling very sorry for Nova's ignorance. "Allow me to share with you our understanding of recruitment in the ghost program: the academy drag someone away from their home and family and reprogram their mind and body into a form that suits them. They stick things in their victim's brain so that he or she cannot disobey their orders, strip away every last shred of compassion and humanity before sending them off to kill people, with or without the victim's consent."

"Touché." Admittedly, the ghost program was rather barbaric. Nobody who knew the truth could deny that. Cadets were forced through the most grueling forms of training in the sector and subjected to all sorts of surgeries and 'medical' procedures. The line between 'training' and 'torture' was very thin indeed. "Still, it's for a good cause. A few of us have to give up their freedom so the rest can live in peace."

"Freedom is such a curious thing amongst your people. Many of your kind champion it to the point where they consider it a basic right, yet the Dominion does everything to curb this freedom, usually in the name of security."

"I think you Zerg have been listening to the Raiders a bit too much. We can't afford insurrections when our enemies are at our doorstep. If we have to surrender a few freedoms so that humanity can live, so be it. Sometimes the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Nova wasn't sure she really agreed with what she said or if it was even applicable to the Dominion, but she was still a Dominion soldier, as well as an 'ambassador' of sorts. Speaking ill of the Dominion to a Zerg didn't sit well with her. "Besides, most Zerg are two steps short of slaves, right? It's not like you lot are the paragons of virtue around here."

"I did not wish to claim that we are morally superior to you. I merely wish to highlight the paradox of protecting your people's freedoms by taking them away."

"Only for some of us. We don't rob an entire species of their free will, like some others I could mention."

"A permanent form of peace can only occur if all members of a species can agree on what course their race should take." The broodmother explained. "I realize that the Dominion must take action to ensure its survival, but what I do not understand is this: if we are evil because we elevate you without your direct approval, what would the Dominion be under that logic? Perhaps I am a hypocrite, but consider the fact that my actions benefit the entire Swarm, whereas your actions and those of your fellow ghosts only benefit your government. Zerg understand each other. We are connected. When one feels pain, we all suffer. When one benefits, all grow stronger. As long as we have a leader, Zerg do not turn on each other. Humans do. I do not wish to insult you, but your kind is inherently selfish. It is why your history is a collection of bloodshed, man fighting man. Even as the Swarm invaded, rebels and pirates continued fighting for their own gains even though your species stood at the brink of extinction. Zerg care only about the survival of their species. By your definition of evil, I think humanity fits it better than we do."

"That's not fair! I care about the people around me! I treated my family's servants with respect, even if no one else did. I tried to spare innocent lives, even if the cost was my own freedom. I can still hear the voice of every man, woman, and child that I've killed. Just because some humans are monsters doesn't mean we all are. Don't you dare say to my face that I don't give a damn!"

The broodmother seemed to smile. At least, she would, if she had a mouth. "And that is why your species intrigues me. Whenever I think I understand you, there is always one amongst you that is different from the others. I like you, Nova. You are more like us than you'd ever dare to admit."

The creature was trying to give her a complement, it seems. Not that it was working. Nova always knew there was a lot wrong with some people. The memories that were slowly returning to her, six months in the Tarsonian Gutter, had given her ample proof of that. The broodmother just reiterated what she always knew. And the Zerg? They had a way to stop it. It was undeniable: if everyone could feel each other's thoughts like she could, if humans were linked the way the Zerg were, people would stop fighting each other. But at what cost? If the only way to stop humanity from feeding upon itself was to destroy it altogether, should she still defend it? The painful truth: in some respects, humans are no better than the Zerg. At least the Zerg don't pretend to be the good guys.

"Her majesty has returned and requests your presence. We shall take you home." Me'dea said, pointing towards the doorway with one of her claws.

Home. Does a ghost even have a home?


	53. Chapter 53

_A/N Wow_

_Just, wow._

_I was quite worried when I published the last chapter. Philosophy isn't something I'd really done up to that point and I don't see it all that much on this site. I wasn't sure the audience would approve of me and my existentialist jabbering. _

_Turns out I was wrong. Very, very wrong. You lot have been throwing positive reviews at me like bundles of roses to a bullfighter. My day has officially been made._

_Of course, that does mean that the next few chapters will probably feel a little disappointing. It has been said that if you're going to make something great, make sure that it's the last thing you ever do or you'll be struggling under high expectations and bricks. I'll do my best, but I really doubt I can make that lightning strike twice…_

_Oh well, here goes nothing…_

**Leviathan, Surface of L-540**

The first thing Nova noticed upon entering the leviathan was the creature's sheer size. Sure, she had seen one on the battle reports from the Char invasion, but it's hard to grasp just how big the things was from pictures alone. She could have easily driven a vulture through the mouth and the insides were large enough to house a small army or marines along with all their equipment. Why the ghost hadn't noticed it the first time she was there, she'd never know.

The creature shook a bit, indicating a take-off. Much to Nova's surprise, the ride was relatively smooth. When compared to the dropship anyway. Then again, something the size of a leviathan isn't going to be blown around by a sandstorm.

The oversized hydralisk acting as her guard guided Nova towards one of the chambers, where Kerrigan and that other infested human resided. The queen ordered both of them away. They obeyed, though reluctantly. Apparently they don't like leaving their leader behind with the person that just tried to assassinate her, Nova thought. Not that unsurprising, of course. Still, there was little doubt in the ghost's mind that if Kerrigan wanted to kill her, she wouldn't need her pet Zerg.

Kerrigan was the first to speak. "I'm not going to kill you, Nova. If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you already."

"That's not what I'm really worried about."

"If I was infesting you, you'd be floating in a fluid filled tank and we'd be having this conversation telepathically."

"Fair enough. I suppose I should apologize for trying to kill you a few hours ago…" Nova said, trying to be the peace-maker. Though Kerrigan hadn't done anything to her so far, there was no telling what she might decide to do next. The ghost probably didn't need to be suspicious of the woman who spared her life, but old habits die hard. She still felt like a lamb being taken to the slaughter. After all, in spite of the environment suit the queen was wearing, she was still, unmistakably, a Zerg.

Kerrigan just laughed in response. "It's alright. I won't hold it against you. Reputation or not, I'm taking you back to the Bucephalus, unharmed. Trust me, if there's anyone who knows what it's like to have your free will taken from you, it's me."

Nova didn't expect understanding from her. She especially didn't expect the queen to understand what it's like to be a human marionette. "Really? You've been betrayed by the people you trust? Your own commanders? Did they make you try to shoot someone against your will…"

"…while you beat on the confines of your own mind, begging them to stop?" Kerrigan interrupted with an increasingly morose tone in her voice. "That would accurately describe what my life has been like the past four years. I don't remember most of it, thankfully, but that's not much of a relief for the billions that are dead because of me." The queen noticed the rather puzzled look on Nova's face. "I'm not what you expected, am I?"

"Well, I expected you to be sitting on a throne made of skulls, surrounded by Protoss concubines. I'm not exactly surprised that I was wrong about that. Still, compared to what our intelligence says about you, I might as well be talking to a completely different person."

"From one perspective, you are. Just out of curiosity, what does Dominion Intelligence say about me?"

"They say that you're a warmonger who would do anything to get more power. Apparently, you willingly allowed yourself to be infested by the Zerg when the emperor 'thought your thirst for power would destroy humanity in the long run'." Kerrigan's face showed an expression Nova couldn't quite read. On one hand, she seemed angry. On the other, betrayed and mournful. "But, they also say that the Zerg either murder or infest their prisoners and that they certainly won't try discussing philosophy with you. Shows you how much they know…"

"You don't need to sweet-talk their lies. It's not your fault 'Military Intelligence' is an oxymoron."

"Maybe not. I was just worried you might decide to shoot the messenger, especially when the messenger already tried to shoot you."

"Look, if someone's going to die for that, it'll be the person responsible, not you. I doubt you turned on your own implants, so you have nothing to fear from me."

Though Nova was somewhat relieved by the queen's assurances, she had a good idea who it was that Kerrigan would consider 'responsible'. "You're going after the emperor, aren't you?" The look on Kerrigan's face already gave the ghost her answer. "What did he do to you? It can't just be about me and my little assassination attempt. You're far too angry at him for that." The ghost was genuinely worried about her. It was obvious that Kerrigan wanted Mengsk dead. Badly. Nova wasn't sure how far she was willing to go, but the ghost knew that a lot of people would suffer when the Zerg would make their move against the emperor. She couldn't allow that. It went against her training and her nature to sit idly by while countless lives were at risk. She had to try something. Right now, that was talking Kerrigan down.

"What have you heard about me and Arcturus? Have they told you that I killed his father under Confederate orders, but he forgave me for it? That I trusted him with my life? That I spoke out against using psi-emitters to lure the Zerg to Tarsonis and that he left me there to die because of it? Trust me, I have plenty of reasons to want him dead."

"Wait, you killed his father?"

The Zerg queen closed her eyes, as if she was bringing up a painful memory. "I used to work for the Confederacy and they ordered me to kill Angus Mengsk when he started an open rebellion. I had as much choice in that matter as you had when you tried to kill me. Arcturus said that he understood and that he forgave me for it, but… well, you know what happened."

"Sounds like you broke the first rule of spy craft: Trust no one."

Kerrigan tried to chuckle in the most sincere way she could. "Shows you how much I know. The Confederates always said that we were the best and brightest of the human race and that it was a great honor to serve our people, right before throwing us into the meat-grinder. Some things never change, don't they?"

"I guess they don't. There's one thing I need to ask, though. Do you think you're still the bad guy?"

The queen was eerily silent for a few moments. "I like to think I'm not. Still, it's hard to believe me when I just murdered hundreds of people this day alone…"

"At least you feel guilty about it. I know you're trying to hide it. Trying to keep up a 'tough guy' façade in front of the other Zerg? Let's just say you're a better telepath than you are an actress. Look, assuming you're telling the truth, how do you want to go about killing Mengsk? His palace is a fortress. No way you'll be able to sneak an assassin in. The only way you'll be able to kill him is invading the planet. If you're the person you say you are, you won't do that. The emperor may deserve to die, but the countless people that get in the way don't and you know it."

Kerrigan shot the ghost an inquisitive glare. It appeared she was catching on to Nova's train of thought. "You're trying to stop me from destroying the Dominion, aren't you?"

"No, I'm trying to make sure you don't slaughter our entire species in your quest for revenge. You know how they say 'those on a quest for revenge should dig two graves'? If you want Mengsk's head, you'll be digging more than six billion. You don't want to do that, especially when you have bigger problems."

"You're referring to Valerian's package, aren't you? Zeratul's hybrids?"

"I know the word of someone who tried to kill you probably won't mean much, but that package is not a trap. I saw the crown prince put the crystal in myself and he said he'd add some instructions too. Take a look at it before doing anything rash. He wouldn't have gone through all this trouble if it wasn't important. Just make sure you have the Zerg equivalent of a doctor around. It gave him a hell of a headache."

"Alright. Just so that you know, I have no intention of destroying humanity just to get to Arcturus. Contrary to what some people think, I haven't completely lost my mind, yet. Next time you see the 'good' emperor, though, tell him he hasn't been forgotten yet." The leviathan shuddered, slowly grinding to a halt. "There's your stop, by the way."

"Thanks. If it helps, I'll put in a good word for you with Valerian. It's the least I can do, with you not murdering me and all that. Just one piece of advice: This places smells really bad. Next time, try evolving it an air freshener or something." Nova's half-joked comment was cut short by an irritated groan from the leviathan.

"Word of advice: Don't insult the ship. It tends to take things personally."

"Right, the ship's alive, of course. How you get used to living in a place like this is beyond me."

"Adapt or die. Pretty much the unofficial Zerg motto." Adapt or die. A good maxim, even for non-Zerg. While Nova left the room, the queen turned her attention to Valerian's little box.

As the ghost exited the leviathan through its 'mouth', she was greeted by an army of marines and a decontamination crew. Wonderful. Hopefully, the Zerg kept their word and the doctors would leave her alone soon. She had one heck of a report to give to the crown prince. Right after she had beaten the snot out of him for talking her into this mission…

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

The Dominion was falling apart. Arcturus Mengsk knew it, even if he would never admit it in public. It was a slow death, but an inevitable one nonetheless. Every day, more reports of civil unrest would stream in. Sometimes, colonies would even declare independence. What's worse, the emperor could no longer count on the full support of the military. Most commanders had remained loyal thus far, but stories of discontent were becoming more frequent. It was unlikely that they would support a slow, bloody war of reunification any time soon, especially with aliens pressing on the borders of the Dominion. Taking back secessionist colonies by force wasn't an option, at least not in the short term. It would inevitably turn into a bloodbath, which would cause Mengsk to lose what little goodwill he had left amongst his people.

In an attempt to win back some popularity, the Dominion government had taken total control of the media. Even UNN, a channel that was usually given a great deal of freedom, had been collared. Everything they made had to be checked by a special committee to make sure that their programs wouldn't hurt the Dominion any more than it already had. Nevertheless, stories kept slipping through the net, in no small part due to the actions of UNN lead anchorwoman Kate Lockwell. Obsessed with the 'truth', this reporter would stop at nothing to yell her anti-Dominion propaganda. When the censors blocked her stories, they often ended up being 'leaked' somehow. Admittedly, she never talked about events that didn't happen, but her stories tended to be one-sided in the emperor's opinion. She would cover a worker's strike and only report on the Dominion soldiers 'savagely beating innocent protestors'. Of course, she would 'forget' the massive loss of productivity, or the effect on public order that a strike causes, or the fact that the soldiers just a little overzealous in their effort to get everyone back to work.

Mengsk wanted to get rid of her. Stick something sharp into her head and leave her to report on the 'act of brutality' on the wrong side of an airlock. Making her disappear was easier said than done, however. Her popularity increased by the hour, thanks to her being willing to ask the questions no one else dared to ask. Lockwell was like a cancer eating away at the Dominion's heart. One does not simply have someone like that murdered or taken of the air without her becoming a martyr or causing the Dominion media to lose what little credibility it has left. She had become like the new Jim Raynor, except she fighting with words instead of troops. It was easier to cleanse a Zerg infestation than it was to get rid of this pesky reporter woman.

Then there were the Zerg. Mengsk didn't realize just how much he needed the imminent threat of death by brutal dismemberment to keep the people in line. The Zerg were out there, sure, but they hadn't attacked a single human colony in weeks. Most Zerg sightings were small, isolated hives. The press was calling it 'clean-up' rather than an actual war. They had stopped being the terrifying menace that they used to be, at least to the public. In reality, the taskforce he had sent out to deal with the Swarm was soundly beaten. General Morrigan's report showed that Kerrigan was very much alive and very much a threat. The Zerg were rebuilding, much faster than Dominion Intelligence thought they would. Morrigan had requested more troops to deal with them, but the emperor was afraid that he would just be sending more meat into the grinder. He couldn't even tell the public about them: nothing makes people lose faith in their leaders than defeat in battle. If only Valerian hadn't taken off with that damn artifact, Kerrigan could have been stopped, then and there. The crown prince was currently beyond his reach, however. Mengsk had lost contact with his spies. Why, he didn't know yet. The emperor had to keep going, however. No one stayed in power by sitting on their hands while their empire crumbles around them.

With the most apparent threat to the Dominion seemingly gone, the people were starting to worry about other things: unemployment, unequal distribution of wealth and power, an emperor no one seemed to like anymore…

As much as he hated to admit it, the emperor's life was easier when the Swarm and Raynor were still around causing trouble. Unless something big happened that could restore people's faith in their government, the Dominion probably wouldn't live another month.

The console on the emperor's desk, exclusively there for high-priority communiqués, activated. Expecting one of his operatives, Mengsk was instead greeted by the image of a Protoss. A high-ranking templar, judging by the garments the alien wore. After the initial shock faded, the emperor smelled an opportunity. He realized the Protoss wouldn't bother calling him unless they needed something badly.

"My, my, a Protoss hacking into my computer. You must need something from me. Desperately too, if you are willing to go through this much trouble to get this connection."

"Hardly. Human communication technology is little more advanced than shouting. But you are correct, I am High Templar Karass of the Auriga tribe, and I am in the unfortunate position of requiring your aid."

"Alright, go ahead." Mengsk sat back into his chair. He knew a superior bargaining position when he saw one. Protoss, and the Templar in particular, would never deal with him unless they had no alternative. At least that's what his Intelligence services assured him. It made sense, though. The Protoss society was founded on principle and honor. Two words very few people would use to describe the emperor.

"As you are inevitably aware of by now, Kerrigan has escaped her confines and is attempting to reunite the Swarm. I am certain that even your feeble human intellect can predict what will happen if she succeeds. However, in spite of the mighty fleet I have at my command, I cannot end her without aid. She has been skillfully avoiding our armies, but we know the queen hasn't granted your people the same leniency. I propose we work together to stop her."

"You want my men to act as bait, lure the Zerg into a trap while your fleet moves in to take her out?"

"I am not ignorant of the Dominion's condition, or of your reputation. You need her head, and soon. If it gets you what you wish, why do you care?"

The Protoss was right. The Dominion doesn't have the firepower to deal with the Zerg without heavy losses. With the aliens to help him, however… "I will converse with my generals. We'll be in touch."

"I shall await your answer. Be swift, however. The Swarm grows stronger every moment we delay."

Of course they did. The emperor smiled. Perhaps there was still hope after all.


	54. Chapter 54

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

"Greetings, Kerrigan. I am Valerian Mengsk, crown prince of the Terran Dominion. I know that the mention of my name is probably enough to make most in your situation throw this device out the airlock, but I hope you can collar your hatred long enough for you to hear me out. I may be the son of Arcturus Mengsk, but I am not my father. I want to help humanity, not just myself. For that, I need your help.

Within this box is a memory crystal of Protoss origin. On it are the memories of a Protoss named Zeratul. The one that convinced Raynor that you had to live, in spite of the actions of the Queen of Blades. He knows that there's a storm coming and that he needs you and your Zerg if we're going to have a chance of stopping it. I know this might sound insane to you. If you do not believe me, take a look at the crystal yourself. All I had to do was place my hand on it, and the memories 'download' themselves into your brain. I doubt it will be any different to you.

Look, I don't know who you are, not really. I have followed your behavior since the end of the invasion of Char, and your actions suggest you are a very different person than you were before. I'm willing to take that leap of faith. The future may prove my assessment incorrect, but I know this: if we keep fighting each other, we're all as good as dead."

Kerrigan wanted to use the long trip back to Marrakesh to see what was so important about that crystal and if she could make sense of any of it. It wasn't going very well. The message was ominous enough by itself, but nothing could have prepared her for the crystal. Reliving the thoughts of someone she had hurt more than anyone else in the universe was probably the most horrific experience she ever had. The worst part were the feelings Zeratul had felt when he saw the Queen of Blades. Looking at her…herself through the alien's eyes, feeling the emotions of the dark prelate, was something that would forever scar Kerrigan's mind.

A small problem compared to the Overmind's vision. If the crystal was to be believed, he knew that the Zerg would one day be destroyed by the hybrids. He and his broods traveled half-way across the galaxy so that she, former ghost and no one of great importance, could figure out a way to stop this from happening. Jim had told her something similar, but now that she saw it for herself…

Why her, Kerrigan kept asking. Of all the great leaders in the universe, why would the Overmind put that responsibility on her shoulders? Why would he make her the messiah, not just of the Zerg, but of everyone, everywhere? What did she do to deserve that?

She had replayed Valerian's message, telling herself that she misunderstood it and that the answer was hidden in there somehow. In reality, she hoped, no, prayed, that it would somehow disprove the memories etched into her mind. It wasn't working, but she kept trying nonetheless.

"You have replayed that message many times, my Queen." Abathur's inhuman voice spoke behind her. "You understand its message, but you continue regardless. How curious." The tone on the word 'curious' sounded especially frightening.

"Where are the humans we picked up?" Kerrigan snapped back, hoping to change the subject. This wasn't a matter she wanted to discuss with him. Not now, anyway.

"They have been returned to the Raiders as you ordered, like the assassin. Do you not remember?" Did she? Kerrigan's headache, probably a side-effect of that damn crystal, made it a bit difficult to remember things. Turns out: sticking memories into your head isn't exactly a painless process. More so when those memories shatter you to the core. "It was unfortunate that you returned that ghost. Her psychic powers were incredible. Greater even than yours were before the Overmind remade you. With a few improvements, I could have turned her into a weapon of unspeakable power. It would have aided us greatly in future conflicts."

"We've talked about this before."

"We have, my queen. You prefer grateful allies to resentful slaves. Still, I could have improved her body without taking away her free will. Since she has dedicated her life to the art of war, it would be logical that she would gladly submit herself to any procedure that would enhance her abilities in combat."

"I don't think many humans will see it that way…"

"Indeed, humans rarely act in a way that is truly logical. Take you, for instance. This is the fifth time you have replayed the crown prince's message. I will not pretend to be knowledgeable in the intricacies of the human mind, but reading a set of instructions after you already used the item that the instructions are referring to is pointless. Reading them multiple times is a sign that one's mental faculties may have been compromised. Unless you think to find something else within them…"

"Abathur, I just found out that destiny picked me, ME, to lead the Swarm and save the universe from a crazy Xel'Naga. My life is just one big puppet show, with the Overmind pulling the strings. The fates of everyone and everything in the galaxy pretty much rests on my shoulders now, so cut me some goddamn slack, alright!" Kerrigan didn't even know why she was yelling to the creature. Perhaps the pain this whole mess was causing her finally became too much for her to bear. It wasn't like Abathur was going to care anyway. Of all the sentient beings in the Zerg Swarm, he was the least likely to understand human emotions.

The Swarm's chief geneticist stared, quizzically, at her before muttering: "Please follow me." No further explanation was given. After some consideration, Kerrigan followed. She couldn't think of a reason not to.

The creature led her to the evolution chamber, the Zerg equivalent of a lab. Kerrigan rarely came here, and with good reason. The place stank. The whole leviathan smelled, but that place stank. While she had gotten used to the former, the evolution chamber was too much. It was more than just the smell. Whenever she was there, a part of her wanted to run away screaming. The sounds, the smells, the twisted mutant…things growing there… A primal, instinctual voice in her head kept telling her to stay clear and get out. Another, however, urged her onwards, reminding her that she was looking at the glorious future of the Swarm. A voice that nagged her like a child in a toy shop, begging you to buy one of the painted wonders on display. Being torn between the two tended to make her feel nauseous. As a result, she only came here when Abathur had something really interesting to show to her.

They stopped in front of two semi-transparent eggs, each containing two hydralisks. At first, they seemed identical, but upon close inspection, small differences could be seen.

"Why are we here, Abathur?"

"Behold: two hydralisks. The one on the left carries a series of mutations that modify their projectiles into a low-yield explosive, the one on the right, some that grant the projectiles even greater armor piercing properties than before. The muscle structure between the two is radically different, making it impossible to utilize both mutations simultaneously. When their performance is satisfactory, you will have to decide which one you wish to use."

"Your point?" The queen said, annoyed.

"The concepts of 'fate' and 'destiny' are products of a primitive mind trying to use spirituality instead of intellect to understand the universe. Concepts rendered moot by the creatures you see before you. They represent choice, or rather, a long line of choices. You have the ability to chose between the two, because you have free will. Yet you would not have this choice were it not for a series of decisions I made during the research process. The effects of our choices can be far greater than they first seem. Perhaps, by choosing the one on the right, you may gain the ability to kill a high ranking general hiding behind a piece of cover the one on the left could not penetrate. At any point, had anyone made a different choice, history could have unfolded itself differently. At any point, you can make a decision that renders any prophecy, no matter how wise or powerful its creator, undone. As such, it is a statistical impossibility for someone to foresee the events that are the story of your life."

"You think all of history is just a long line of people making choices?"

"'Think' implies that there is any doubt. It is what I observe. Nothing more, nothing less. My observations are one of the few things I, as a scientist, can be certain of."

Kerrigan looked at the creatures, blankly. "It doesn't sound like the Overmind gave me much choice…"

"I beg to differ. It was never your choice to be captured, of course. You would never have submitted willingly, so it was out choice if we should take you and what to do once you were in our possession. When we acquired you, I opted to destroy your previous personality and replace it with the one we know as the Queen of Blades. The Overmind refused, keeping your existing persona intact, but suppressed. Still, you influenced her to some degree. Had you not, many more would have been killed by her. You could have shut yourself off from the world around you, but you chose not to."

"You're just trying to make me feel better." She knew Abathur wasn't really, but it did feel that way. Hell must have frozen over.

"I merely speak what I believe to be the truth, my Queen. There have been many instances over the past four years that the late Queen of Blades chose to spare an opponent, even though there was no logical reason to do so. This 'Zeratul', for instance, would inevitably seek vengeance for being forced to slay his own matriarch. Had she killed him, however, we would never have known of the enemy that the Overmind was forced to hide from us all. Though it pains me to admit it, in hindsight, preserving your humanity has helped us more than it harmed us." There was something nice in hearing Abathur talk like this. He always spoke with a clear, slightly authorative tone, as if his every word was a pure, irrefutable fact.

"Now that the Queen of Blades is…dead, how do I fit into the Overmind's plan?"

"The Overmind was never omniscient, even if his power allowed him to appear that way. He could not have predicted the artifact, or that the Terrans would ever be able to use it on you. I would say that his plan has come to an end. He can no longer affect us, but you can. Whether you wish it or not, the survival of the Swarm, and indeed, the sector, does rest on your shoulders now."

Kerrigan felt her heart sink again. The responsibility that the powers that be were forcing on her seemed too much for anyone, let alone a mere mortal like her. "And if I don't want that? What if I just want a normal life like everyone else?"

"We both know that that is not your desire, for the same reason you needlessly risk your own life on the front lines even though the broods are strong enough not to require your presence. You are our queen and would never shoulder another with your responsibilities. Somehow, I do not think you would ever allow another to take your place, even if it was a possibility. That is why the Overmind allowed you to retain your old persona, so that we could all 'benefit from your fierce example'." She smiled. This was probably the nicest thing the creature had ever said to her. "I am somewhat surprised you did not come to this conclusion yourself, though."

"Well, we can't all be creative geniuses, now, can we?" Kerrigan replied in a mocking tone. Still, she couldn't help but admire the creature. For someone so utterly clueless in a standard human conversation, he had her figured out surprisingly well. Then again, he probably had been a part of the human infestation project the Queen of Blades ran. "I'm surprised that you haven't tried replacing me or installing a less troublesome personality."

"The thought has crossed my mind, my queen. However, there is no one to replace you and 'installing' another personality is far more complicated than you might think. A human personality is the result of thousands of variables, most of which are well beyond my comprehension. The Overmind may have been able to perform such a feat, but that particular knowledge died with him. We are Zerg, however. We are masters of adapting to difficult circumstances. Tiberias suggested that communication would be the best way of resolving your psychological traumas. Given its results thus far, I am inclined to believe him."

"I'll be sure to thank him."

"That would be appropriate. Now, I believe we must get back to the tasks at hand. The enemy will not sit idly by while you deal with your personal problems."

Abathur was an unusual creature. It almost seems like he genuinely cares about others. Whether that caring came from a genuine spark of compassion or a desire to create a stronger Swarm was difficult to say. Kerrigan realized she was probably just projecting. Still, that didn't make Abathur wrong. There were more important things to do, choices to make. This wasn't the time to burst into tears. Her army had suffered heavy losses on L-540. Once they got back to Marrakesh, they needed restock and resupply immediately. After that, well, there was still a certain commander that needed a rescue.

And when the hybrids would eventually rear their ugly heads, she would make sure that the Zerg were ready to fight them. Not because anyone told her to, but because she chose to.


	55. Chapter 55

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

Kerrigan kept staring at the crystal on the other side of the room. It made her frightened and nauseous, but she couldn't leave it be. That thing contained, apart from the mother of all revelations, the only piece of tactical data she would get on the hybrids, at least before they would invade. As such, that information might just save the entire sector.

She touched the crystal and tried using her powers to carefully sift through the memories contained within. Kerrigan quickly found that thinking of the memories as camera footage on a computer made life much easier. Distancing herself emotionally helped too, since many of the memories were still too painful for her to 'experience' again. With a bit of effort, she managed to find the memories of Zhakul: an archive world where Zeratul fought and defeated a Protoss/Zerg hybrid that managed to take control of the archives and its guardians.

The fact that the hybrid was able to 'recruit' the Protoss worried her. Kerrigan knew all too well the effects of mind-control on a person. Mind-controlling a single Protoss wasn't that much of an achievement. After all, she managed to do the same thing to the Dark Templar's matriarch, Raszagal. If Kerrigan, someone as closely related to a Protoss as a human would be to a Ragnasaur, could pull it off, a sufficiently powerful Protoss/Zerg hybrid should be able to do it too. However, the hybrid didn't corrupt a single Protoss: it took a small army, somehow twisting their minds to obey it without question and regard it with superstitious awe. Could it do the same to Zerg?

Looking at the way Kerrigan controlled her broods, it seemed unlikely. Taking control of a Zerg that already had a master was nearly impossible without killing the master or forcing it to submit to your will. She had seen it with the broodmothers; even Na'fash's upgraded queens had a strong enough leash on their Zerg to stop her from turning their own forces against them. It wasn't impossible to mind-control non-feral Zerg, it just took so much effort that it generally wasn't worth bothering yourself with. At least not on a large scale. Of course, this works both ways. If the hybrids encounter feral Zerg, they could take control of them just as easily as Kerrigan could. After all, she was only a half-Zerg hybrid too. It was a good thing that she had claimed so much of the Queen of Blades' army already. If she hadn't, creatures like this hybrid could pick up entire armies for free. The resulting damage would have been catastrophic. The only large pocket of feral Zerg that she had to worry about was Auir. Kerrigan didn't go there because she didn't want too much attention from the Protoss, but the hybrids probably wouldn't care about it the way she did.

This still left another question: why were the Protoss corrupted so easily? Controlling an army of non-sentient killing machines was hard enough, but dominating an army of sentient beings should have been much more complicated, especially when many of Zhakul's guardians were soldiers. As far as Kerrigan understood, Protoss placed a great deal of value on history. They would not have used greenhorns to guard what was possibly the most important archive in the sector. The preservers would have been guarded by hardened veterans; men not easily swayed by outside forces.

Perhaps it was the Khala, the psychic link connecting most of the Protoss, that was their weakness. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the hybrid could influence one Protoss, it's influence could spread amongst the others like a plague. The Zerg 'hive mind' was a simple hierarchy of domination and submission: if you are stronger-willed than your peers, they answer to you. If not, you answer to them. The Khala was much more fluidic. It had to be: the Protoss were sentient and were strengthened by cooperation. Also, the difference between them in terms of willpower were relatively small compared to those of the Zerg. Trying to form a Zerg-like hierarchy would just lead to anarchy and conflict.

Unfortunately for the Protoss, a being with a silver tongue and a great deal of psionic power could influence and, apparently, control others through this link, turning their symbiotic bond against them. Then again, the Dark Templar were also affected, in spite of the fact that they ritually sever themselves from the Khala. Maybe the hybrid could affect something else in the Protoss mind? If the weakness that allowed them to be controlled was inherent in every Protoss, the problem could become even bigger than it already was. Whatever the cause, it didn't change the fact that the hybrid managed to turn an entire Protoss garrison to its will.

Kerrigan was worried by this. If a single hybrid could influence so many, what would a small group of them be able to accomplish, or an entire army? Every Protoss in the galaxy could be at risk. Even if the hybrids couldn't take control of the entire Protoss species, small cells of corrupted slaves could work against the government, causing discord and insurrections or, at worst, plunge their entire civilization into civil war. Either way, the Protoss military would be crippled and unable to stop the hybrid advance. Now that she considered it, this might already be happening. From what she had heard from the Raiders, the Protoss Protectorate was on the brink of collapse. In fact, their common hatred for her and the Swarm was one of the few things that stopped their civilization from completely devolving into tribalism. How wonderful…

This, however, was a problem Kerrigan wouldn't be able to solve on her own. In spite of her best efforts, the Protoss still hated her and the Zerg Swarm for obvious reasons. She decided to work on the problem she could deal with: the hybrids themselves. Judging by the Zhakul hybrid's combat prowess, it was psionically no more powerful than she was. Physically, it may have been superior, but its psychic powers in combat weren't as powerful as she had feared. Zeratul's strike force was small and the hybrid was supported by Zhakul's guardians. Still, he managed to prevail. The creature's abilities were quite impressive, but a high-level ghost should be able to do the same things. Encasing something in a prison of gravity or hurling walls of pure kinetic force would be impressive to most people, but it was something Kerrigan did on a daily basis. When she thought about it, she could probably beat the thing in single combat, provided it didn't teleport away and started leeching energy from a friendly neighborhood preserver. The hybrid seemed to strengthen each time it 'fed' on them and would eventually become incredibly powerful. However, the hybrids Kerrigan would probably encounter wouldn't have this ability. The preservers were powerful psychics in their own right; even the Protoss wouldn't have enough of them to 'feed' an army of hybrids.

This 'leeching' ability the hybrids seemed to have intrigued her more than it scared her. Could it be used on Zerg too? What would happen if a hybrid tried to 'feed' on her? Could she use this power herself, killing the hybrids while at the same time enhancing her own abilities? She would have to talk with Abathur about this. The fate of many future battles could depend on it. Even if it couldn't be used as a weapon, understanding how it works may be instrumental.

Then, there was Tassadar's return. She didn't really know Tassadar apart from a few clashes early in her 'career' as the Queen of Blades. Conflicts she couldn't, nor wanted to, fully remember. She was certain, however, that he died killing the Overmind. As in, incinerated, obliterated, atomized. His mind and body was destroyed, completely and utterly. There was no way in hell he could have survived. In spite of that, he came back as a 'spirit', a being not quite of this dimension, or so it seemed. If it wasn't for the fact that Kerrigan saw him directly from Zeratul's memories, she would have dismissed the story of the high templar's survival as lunacy. A delusion spawned from the broken mind of an old, gullible Nerazim prelate. Yet he was real. Or at least something was.

Kerrigan liked Tassadar, though she doubted the high templar would like her. He was everything she wanted herself to be: a warrior, a hero, and ultimately, a savior to his people. Everything the Zerg queen was not. Still, as much as she wanted his endorsement, she couldn't help but be suspicious. In Kerrigan's understanding of the world, dead people generally stayed dead, even the Protoss. Sure, they could shrug off crippling wounds and have the medical technology to allow a mortally wounded individual to survive all but the worst injuries, but even they can't cure disintegration. Sustaining their spirits for a short time outside a body is also a possibility if he were an archon, except Tassadar didn't look like one. He was simply there, resurrected like one of those ancient mythological figures the history books talk about. Unless the Protoss had a device that could break the laws of nature, he simply shouldn't be alive. But he was alive anyway, science and common sense be damned. Alive to tell Zeratul the world was going to end and that the Overmind's plan was for Kerrigan to stop it.

Of course, Tassadar's survival raises more questions other than how he did it in the first place. Where has he been the past four years? Was he trapped around the Overmind's carcass? If he was, how did he maintained any shred of sanity? Kerrigan knew from her own experience that playing second violin in your own body with a Zerg isn't exactly good for your mental health. She still wasn't sure if she was still herself after all these years. What if he had been corrupted or driven mad somewhere along the line, just like the guardians of Zhakul were? The Overmind may be dead, but if there was enough life left to take memories from, there might also be enough life left to influence the templar's mind. Even a dead god can still dream…

If he wasn't trapped, what has he been up to? The Tassadar she remembered would not sit idly by and let his species fall apart. Even if he couldn't leave Aiur, there must have been countless Protoss stranded on the planet after the evacuation and he would never leave them to rot. If the high templar had been there for four years, surely someone would have noticed him. Somehow, people should have known that their hero was still alive somehow. It wouldn't even take much time or effort on his part: Tassadar's presence alone would be more than enough to invigorate even the most desperate of Protoss. Kerrigan couldn't quite believe that he would just sit on the Overmind's head waiting for someone whom he could pass his message to. It just didn't make any sense.

What if Tassadar was truly dead and the thing Zeratul saw was an apparition created by the Overmind just before he died? It certainly wouldn't be beyond his power: he managed to create a perverted version of Kerrigan's own personality, after all. It also would make a heck of a lot more sense than a templar somehow coming back from the dead. Also, why was Zeratul so eager to trust the high templar? Yes, the two have a history and Tassadar is two steps short of a deity in Protoss culture nowadays, but it seemed overly gullible to trust him on that alone. Still, the queen knew she probably had to keep this to herself. Tassadar's word was one of the only reasons she was still breathing. Questioning it in public would not be conducive to her health and wellbeing.

What would the other Protoss think of this? Would they believe any of it, even if they had the crystal? Would they even want to? It is comforting to think of the world in black-and-white. How would they react when they found out their greatest enemy has to live for creation itself to be saved? She could ask Lassara, of course. Somehow, though, she didn't think her Protoss captive would be very receptive to the crystal's contents. Chances are, the Protoss would laugh at her for thinking such an incredibly obvious ploy would work, and then yell at her for defiling Tassadar's name. That's what Kerrigan would do if their roles were reversed, anyway…

The leviathan shuddered again, and Kerrigan could feel the now-familiar voices of Marrakesh's hives reaching out to her. The behemoth from L-540 warped in right behind them, ready to be refitted and repurposed as a proper warship. Za'gara, who had been warned beforehand, had gathered a massive stockpile of resources for the task. Good, Kerrigan thought. The sooner they were done, the sooner they could head to Dead Man's Rock and rescue Jim.

Woe be upon any who dared bar their way.

_A/N Yes, it's an exposition dump. Sorry about that, but they are kinda necessary every now and then._


	56. Chapter 56

**White Star, Dylarian Shipyards**

Captain Williams sat in this chair, going over the various reports from what has become known as the L-540 incident. He hoped that he could learn something from the mistakes made during that battle. They had been lucky: General Morrigan had the presence of mind to order the retreat before their losses became too great. While the general was a cold-hearted bastard, he was a very competent one and would never waste lives or resources if he could avoid it. As much as Williams hated to admit it, under anyone else's command, things might have been much worse. As of now, they only lost a handful of battlecruisers, along with most of their ground forces. Sure, the loss of the ground army was horrible, but the loss of life could have been much greater.

Of course, they needed to do more than just replace their losses. Their current taskforce may be powerful, but so were the Zerg, especially now that they recovered their behemoth. Morrigan theorized that the next time they'd see that thing, it would be covered in guns and have enough armor to shrug off anything short of a Yamato cannon. For once, the captain and the general were in agreement. If the scans were anything to go by, the behemoth was large enough to dwarf any ship in the sector and swallow entire battlecruisers whole. They would need more ships, and a lot more firepower, if they were going to have any chance of killing that thing.

Unfortunately, acquiring reinforcements was easier said than done. The emperor commanded most of the army to send them anything they could spare, but the call largely fell on deaf ears. In part, this was due to Morrigan's reputation. In spite of his skill, most generals were convinced that their reinforcements wouldn't return. Given the fact that Morrigan, a man know for not caring about losses all that much, was going after the Zerg directly, they were probably right about that. Still, Williams couldn't help but wonder if there was something more going on. Many high-ranking Dominion officers have been trying for years to convince the emperor to spend more resources on stopping the Zerg, rather than waste time and resources hunting outlaws and 'race traitors'. Now that the emperor has finally ordered the fleet against the Swarm, they should have been flocking to the shipyards to join up.

Of course, things were never that simple. It would be naïve to believe they were, especially in times like these. The generals had their own agendas; ones that didn't necessarily agree with the needs of the Dominion as a whole. It was an unspoken truth that the Dominion's days were numbered and many people were started to worry more about saving their own skins than trying to save a dying government. Few still believed that emperor Mengsk was the heroic savior UNN once made him out to be. Most of the White Star's crew saw him as a better alternative than anarchy, but not by much. When the emperor would inevitably fall, someone needed to pick up the pieces. All it would probably take is for good replacement to step into the limelight and get the people to rise up. Some people had already 'nominated' prince Valerian for the job. Others wanted to ditch the whole monarchy and proposed a democratic system like the one used by the Umojans. The more pessimistic, however, started sending letters to their families, telling them to stock up on food, water, and bullets.

Of course, no one said any of this out loud. It could still be considered treason, at least for as long as the emperor was still in power.

General Morrigan entered the bridge with a look on his face hovering between worry and surprise.

"I just received a message from the emperor. He somehow convinced the Protoss to help us."

The bridge instantly fell silent. Of all the people that would come to the Dominion's aid, the Protoss were the least likely. The Dominion and the Protoss government have been in a state of cold war for years.

"Are you sure about that, sir?"

"The emperor's word, captain. The Protoss are sending the 'entire might of the Auriga tribe', whatever that means, to help us stop the Zerg." Morrigan fell in his command chair, contemplating.

"And you believe it? Aren't we kind of, sort of, not really at war with each other?"

"I don't think the greatest diplomats in the world could tell whether or not we're at war. Apparently, right now, we're allies, at least for the moment. About time too: the Zerg have hit them as hard as they have hit us. They should be pulling their weight in this war."

"That's it? Common enemy and now we're friends, all of a sudden? It's got to be a trap."

"I don't like it either. Protoss minds are like mazes; I'd be surprised if they didn't have some sort of hidden agenda. Nevertheless, we need their help. We'll be slaughtered if we engage the Zerg on our own, especially if my esteemed colleagues keep withholding reinforcements to deal with 'uprisings'." Apparently scuttlebutt hadn't escaped the general's ear. Of course, there was no way he couldn't have known what the real reasons for the other's hesitation were. "I just hope those damn aliens don't decide to turn on us once the Zerg are gone. There's no telling what mess they'll cause."

Williams shook his head. "If the Protoss have anything resembling a working brain, they'll kill us the instant the opportunity presents itself."

"I know. If I were in their place, I'd probably do the same thing. Culturally, Protoss aren't like us, however. According to our scientists, their sense of honor will probably prevent them from stabbing us in the back. Hopefully, they won't forget that when push comes to shove."

Great, just when things couldn't get any worse. Williams did not like relying on anyone belonging to a different faction. At best, they were an unknown variable; someone you can't fully control. At worst, they would use their position to gain an advantage over you. The captain trusted the men and women serving in the Dominion. They generally had the same overall objective you had and you had a good idea what they were capable off. Protoss, however, are different. They were stronger, better, and smarter than he was. Chances are, if they were going to stab them in the back, even Morrigan might not see it coming until it was too late.

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

Kerrigan looked on as the behemoth landed on the plant's surface. Only now that she was back on the ground, seeing the creature with her own eyes, did she fully grasp just how big the thing was. She couldn't even see the tail anymore, from where she was standing. The massive creature caused quite a ruckus when it arrived. Over a dozen hives had to be relocated just to accommodate it. Hundreds of drones were crawling around and within the creature, building pipelines, for the lack of a better word, for biomass and vespene gas or merging with the behemoth to form one of the many guns or pieces of armor plating needed to turn it into a fully-fledged battleship. It was quite the sight to behold.

"Impressive, if I may say so." Spoke an alien voice in her mind. It was Lassara, her (rather unwilling) Protoss captive with a massive, though understandable, chip on her shoulder. "I see your talent for creating engines of destruction remained untouched…"

"I could have sworn you just gave me a complement. A Protoss showing me respect…I should mark the calendar."

"I respect you the same way I respect a virus. If I do not, I will only repeat the Conclave's folly." The Protoss turned her attention to the behemoth in front of them. "One of my companions claimed that a creature the size of a mountain fell from the heavens. It appears he has not lost his mind. This creature is the behemoth you wished to reclaim, is it not? When our scouts claimed they saw Zerg larger than our cities, I never believed them."

"Yes, it is a behemoth. How did you know about that?"

"Your broodmother may have mentioned it. She has been…more hospitable than I thought she would be. Especially since we are not ideal guests."

Kerrigan made a quick mental note to explain to Za'gara the meaning of the phrase 'need to know'. "What did you do? Tried to hijack an overlord and escape?"

"Yes…though it did not work, as you can obviously see. A fact that that broodmother finds extremely amusing." While Kerrigan wanted to burst into laughter, the venom from the Protoss' words made her reconsider. They had a strong sense of pride and she didn't want to wound it anymore than she already had. "I recall that you once tried to convince me that conquest was no longer your intention. Why would you create such a weapon of war, if not to vanquish your foes?"

"You know, where I come from, we have a saying: the best weapon is one you never have to use. I had that thing dug up for the same reason this planet is covered in cannons: deterrent. Once we're finished with the upgrades, I doubt anyone would be stupid enough to try and pick fights with a creature this size. Not even the Protoss. They'll leave us alone, and I don't have to murder them. Win-win situation."

"Forgive me for not taking you at your word."

The queen simply sighed. "Look, I've spent my entire life killing people. Sometimes they deserved it. Most of the time, they don't. What I want is to accomplish something, anything, that doesn't involve someone getting killed, even just once. Just one thing I can be proud off… I figure if people are busy crapping their pants, they'll be too busy trying to shoot us."

The Protoss shot her a curious glare. "I see. I believe your enemies' hatred for you is greater than their fear, but I approve of the effort you are putting in. Nevertheless, upgrading and maintaining such a beast is a massive investment of resources, even for you. One does not bring a creature like that to bear unless you intend on using it soon. Who do you intend to destroy? Or do you intend to save someone?"

Kerrigan's eyes narrowed. Lassara knew far more than she was telling. "Alright, I'll bite. What do you know?"

"My fellow prisoners and I may have…entertained the thought that you have been telling the truth. If you are, then there are only two reasons I can think of that would compel you to order the Swarms to mobilize immediately. As to my knowledge, this world has not been invaded yet, which leaves only one option: something happened to commander Raynor, and you wish to rescue him." Lassara paused at Kerrigan's inquisitive stare. "Is there something amiss?"

"I just never thought a Protoss would even consider the idea that I'm not the greatest villain in the history of creation…"

"To always assume the worst is the curse of a warrior, Kerrigan. In battle, paranoia and suspicion may save your life, but in times of peace it is more hindrance than help. It is part of the reason our people are consuming themselves. I prefer to be more open-minded."

"I hope, for your sake, that no one back home hears you say that. Most Protoss don't seem that understanding."

"Indeed, they are not." The Protoss said, with a hint of pity in her voice. "Even some my brethren here do not share my opinion. Do not fear that they will turn on me, however. We are not Templar. Amongst the scientists of the Khalai, all ideas, even the wrong ones, are seen as valuable if we can determine why they were accepted."

The queen was beginning to like this one. "You sound a lot more sensible than most Protoss I've heard off. Why aren't more Khalai Protoss in your government?"

"It is not the Khalai's place to rule. We are the heart of our people, not the mind. Only the largest and most powerful of the Khalai tribes, the Furinax, has a seat on the Hierarchy. Even then, we have little real influence over the military or any of the events that occur beyond the borders of our settlements."

"And you're okay with that?"

The Protoss' face turned into an expression that Kerrigan interpreted as sorrow. "It is an unfortunate situation, but there is little I can do to change it. Such is the way of the Firstborn, I fear."

Kerrigan couldn't believe it. Lassara was probably one of the most vocal and strong-willed people she had ever met, and she just gave up because 'that was just how the Protoss did things'? "So why don't you do something? Run for office! Yell at your leaders! Write all your complaints on pieces of wood and nail them to the palace gates! You don't just sit there, doing nothing while your entire race is falling apart!"

"I did speak up. I contacted Trabenus of the Furinax tribe. He had been trying to convince the other members of the Hierarchy to allow the common people to have more power and responsibility, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. So I pushed onward. The judicators have failed us before and our people have no reason to be under martial law, so I believed it was fitting that the working caste should have a greater voice in our government…" Lassara fell silent, as if the memory of what happened next bothered her greatly.

"So, what happened? Did it work?"

"You found me on a forsaken ball of ice named Kaldir. The Hierarchy is still what it was. That should give you your answer." The Protoss paused again. "Amusing how the only one willing to listen to me is the former Queen of Blades…"

"I knew most Protoss are rather conservative, but I never knew they were this fanatical about it. How did you even get this far? I'd expect this sort of thing from humans, but not from the Protoss. Your people are supposed to be a race of hyper-advanced space philosophers. You're better than this!"

"Evidently, we are not." Lassara answered, dourly. "Many of my people like to think that we are superior to all other races, but we are as capable of blind, selfish stupidity as you are, as much as it pains me to admit it."

"I guess first impressions don't always tell the whole story…"

"Indeed, they do not. You are living proof of that."

As Lassara left to rejoin the others, Kerrigan felt a bit stunned. That might just be the closest thing to an endorsement she's ever had from a Protoss. The queen smiled. It felt good, knowing that someone other than Raynor had at least a modicum of faith in the former Queen of Blades. Maybe there was hope for her yet.

Now, all Kerrigan had to do was prove herself worthy of that faith…


	57. Chapter 57

**Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock**

Raynor and his men rummaged through a local convenience store, looking for additional supplies. They had been stranded here for quite a while now and their original food supply had long since ran out. The advantage of being in a deserted city, however, is that there's little stopping you from getting what you need. Raynor did make it a point to put some money in the register of every store they visited, just in case the owners would come back. The Raiders only stole from the people that deserve it, he said. The end of the world isn't an excuse to go around looting.

The conditions of the troops' stomachs weren't the commander's only problem, unfortunately. If there was one thing they really needed, it was something that they couldn't 'borrow' from the abandoned stores: faith that any of them would leave this hopeless ball of rock alive. They hadn't heard from the other Raiders for a long time now. All the communicators could pick up were the occasional status reports from the Dominion ships overhead. The only thing that really kept them going was the thought that as long as the fleet was just maintaining a blockade, the Hyperion was still at large somewhere. If the other Raiders had been defeated, the Dominion would have returned to finish them off, they reasoned.

"Movement! Outside!" One of the soldiers cried, pointing to a nearby structure. Raynor could see figures that looked like human marines. Immediately, he started barking orders and circling the wagons. The colors of their armor was wrong, however. They were painted in mercenary colors, not the Dominion's bright red. Still, that didn't mean they were friendly. Mercenaries weren't particularly reliable allies in the best of circumstances.

Raynor waited for his men to get into position before shouting orders to the newcomers. "You there! Come out or we'll open fire!"

A man in a ghost uniform responded. "Hold your fire, Raiders. We are on your side." He spoke in a thick accent, but there was a strange, inhuman, distortion in his voice. The man was infested, that much was certain. "I am Samir Duran. We are here on orders of the Queen of Blades herself to retrieve you."

If he was one of Kerrigan's men, they were in luck. That said, why did he call her 'Queen of Blades'? "Duran. I remember you. You were one of Kerrigan's goons back in the Brood War, weren't you?"

Duran responded, somewhat annoyed: "I prefer the term 'agent'. I'm more than some random thug."

"Fair enough. I thought Kerrigan didn't work with infested humans anymore?"

"We were sleeper agents, placed here to make the eventual conquest of this planet easier. Your invasion of Char put those plans on hold." The man said, accusingly. "As luck would have it, we can still do our part for the Swarm by helping you."

Truth be told, Kerrigan did work with the infested Terrans created by the Queen of Blades, she just didn't make any new ones. He could be telling the truth. Raynor looked at his motion sensor and saw that Duran certainly came in force. He outnumbered the Raiders by quite a bit. Fighting wasn't a good idea: Raynor would lose many, if not all, of men if he did. Better to just go along with the creepy Zerg fellow. "Sure took you long enough to find us…"

"Deadman's Port is a large city and you have become very good at hiding over the years. Not surprisingly, of course, just…inconvenient."

"Speaking of the city, what happened to everyone living here? It used to be crawling with people."

"They left for the countryside when the Dominion showed up. It is unlikely that they will dare return until the blockade above us goes away."

"They just picked everything up and left?"

"There aren't many people on this planet that don't have a price on their heads and, as I'm sure you are aware of by now, the Dominion isn't known for being very kind to the civilians of non-Dominion worlds."

Something was wrong, and Raynor knew it. Duran's story wasn't completely nonsensical, but it just seemed far too convenient. Also, Stanley, their pet Protoss/Zerg hybrid, was acting up for some reason. Normally, it was very friendly and open to new people. Now, however, it was growling at their 'rescuers' and Duran in particular. Kat was able to keep it under control, but it didn't make the creature any less nervous. At least it still listened to her commands. If Duran was telling the truth, Sarah would probably get very annoyed if Stanley ate one of her servants. If Kerrigan didn't send him, Raynor didn't want to give the mercs any reason to gun him and his men down where they stood. With nowhere else to go, it was probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially when said horse can kick your ass if you refuse it. "Alright, lead on."

"Good. The Swarm has yet to arrive, and when it does, it will inevitably have to shoot its way through the blockade. We won't have much time before the rest of the Dominion fleet shows up and starts causing trouble, so we need to be at a good landing zone so they can pick us up. Leviathans can't land very easily in the middle of a city, so we'll need to go through the old subway tunnels to get to the outskirts."

The Raiders followed Duran and his 'mercs' to the nearest subway station, though reluctantly. They all knew that there was something fishy going on, but Raynor played along regardless. If they were going to get ambushed, it was better to be in an enclosed space, where Duran's superior numbers wouldn't help him as much.

After a few minutes in the dark, abandoned tunnels, Raynor noticed the medic fidgeting with devices on her suit. Eventually, Kat brought up the courage to tell the others what was worrying her.

"Sir, if you'd put down your visor and plug into channel 3, there's something you need to hear." Putting down your visor and using the squad radio was an old trick that marines used when they wanted to talk in private: it made it almost impossible to eavesdrop. Raynor complied, along with the other Raiders. Whatever she found must have been important. "Good. Now, there's something wrong about our 'friends' here."

"They're infested, Kat." Lieutenant Harvey replied. "Your scanners are probably going haywire."

"And that's the problem. They aren't going crazy. Commander, I'm certain these people are _not_ infested."

"Really?" Raynor said in disbelief. "That Duran person sounded pretty infested to me."

"Well, Duran probably is, but the other ones aren't. What's more, their brain activity scans are completely wrong…"

"Wait, you can see our brain-waves?" One of the soldiers asked.

"Our suits have a crude, built-in EEG-scanner in the life support system. It measures brain activity and is how I can tell if you're dead, or just unconscious. No, I can't read your thoughts with it, and no, I can't mind-control you either." The medic explained with some annoyance. "Anyway, these guys, it's like they're all sleepwalking. Like their brains are running on a lower power setting so they can't fight whoever is trying to control them."

Harvey shrugged. "They're supposed to be infested. I'm no expert on that, but isn't that how the Zerg take your free will?"

"Zerg take control of you by rewriting, destroying, or suppressing your original personality. EEG-scans stay more or less the same. That's why they're so hard to spot with a brain scan alone. I've seen a lot of infested, and they don't look anything like this. The last time I've seen brain wave patterns like this was on a group of UED soldiers mind-controlled by a Dark Archon. Whatever happened to these guys, the Zerg didn't do it. And before you ask, the Protoss being involved would make even less sense."

"You think Duran is lying to us, don't you." The commander quietly cursed himself for not acting sooner. "He still called Kerrigan 'Queen of Blades'. The Zerg I've met lately seemed pretty certain that the Queen of Blades was gone. I don't think these are Kerrigan's men."

"Either that, or your girlfriend is having a relapse." Harvey said. Raynor certainly did _not_ want to consider that possibility. "That Duran guy didn't move a muscle when he saw our hybrid friend. Now, I don't expect Zerg to start shitting bricks when they see something scary, them being 'fearless' and all, but they wouldn't just ignore seeing something like that."

"Now that you mention it, he seemed almost annoyed it. Like it wasn't part of his plan…" The commander muttered.

"Dammit, I told you that damn monster was trouble! That stupid thing could have led those bastards right to us!"

Kat immediately defended her 'adopted' hybrid. "Harvey, we've been wandering around Deadman's Port for days. If Stanley led them to us, they would have found us sooner. Besides, the only reason I even bothered checking the mercs was because _he_ kept growling at them. Stanley is a better judge of character than you give him credit for, you know."

"Either way, we're walking into an ambush." Raynor said. "We need a plan. I won't wait for Duran to spring whatever trap he has planted for us."

Harvey was the first to propose an idea. "You know, we still have the element of surprise and we're in close quarters. If we're quick, we can gun them down before they have a time to react."

The commander did not like resorting to dirty tactics like these, but circumstances have forced his hand. "Okay everyone, do what the lieutenant said: fire in 3…2…1…NOW!"

Raynor blindly fired into the crowd of mercs in front of him. There was no time to look for cover, assuming there even was any to be found. He just held down the trigger, and prayed that the bad guys couldn't turn around fast enough to return fire.

He got lucky, though three of his men didn't. The plan worked, however. The mercs were dead and Duran himself badly wounded. Good, Raynor thought. Maybe they'd get some answers out of him.

"I would say…something about you being a back-stabbing bastard." Duran muttered while coughing up blood. "But then again…you wouldn't shoot me unless you knew…I wasn't being entirely honest. What gave me away?"

"Queen of Blades is dead, pal. Any real Zerg would know that." Raynor replied, as calmly as he could. He was hoping to intimidate Duran into giving answers. Judging by the grin on his face, it wasn't really working. "So, who are you really, and who do you work for?"

"A single slip of the tongue, and you immediately figure out my plan…I must say…I am impressed. You have gotten…wiser to deception. Not much of an achievement, but still. I should have used a better ruse. My last infiltration attempt…worked a lot better."

His answer surprised Raynor, but he was careful not to show it. Still, what was he talking about? "Well, thanks for the complement. Now answer the question. You're bleeding pretty bad. If you do, I may let our medic take a look at you."

"A tempting offer, but no thanks. I've had worse."

"Bullshit. Three slugs in your abdomen, and another one got you in the lung. I've seen a lot of people wounded like that. Without medical attention, most people tend to die in a few minutes."

"Well, I'm not most people, aren't I? I've been shot in just about every part of my body, including the head, quite a few times before and I'm still walking around. Well, at least I was five minutes ago."

Raynor was quickly losing patience with this 'man' and his boasting. "Good thing I still have a bunch of breaching charges, then. Good luck surviving those."

"Assuming you have a chance to use them."

Duran grinned again and it sent chills down Raynor's spine. Something was wrong. Duran didn't threaten or yell clichés. If he was boasting, he sure didn't sound like it. He sounded more like a man who had just been beaten in a game of chess; far too confident for someone with a gun to his head…

Before Raynor could reply, he was hit by something that felt like the hammer of a god slamming into his body. He was knocked to the ground, his weapon flying out of his hands. While the Raiders scrambled for their weapons, Raynor was completely paralyzed. He recognized the newcomer that had appeared, literally, out of thin air. It was a creature someone resembling a twisted parody of a Protoss. Its body, while frail-looking, was covered in what appeared to be some sort of lightning. A hybrid, almost identical to the one defeated by Zeratul on Zhakul…

The hybrid turned to him, cold hatred burning in the creature's eyes. It lifted its clawed hand, covered in a psychically induced aura, to finish the commander off before a bestial scream shattered its concentration. In the blink of an eye, Stanley had crossed the distance and leapt onto the hybrid, furiously biting and clawing. The destroyer did its best to throw its opponent off, but Stanley wouldn't let go. Eventually, the creature's arm gave way and broke off, buying it just enough time to teleport away before its raving opponent could finish it off.

Stanley howled at the walls, angry that the attacker managed to escape retribution. Though the creature was badly injured in the attempt, it succeeded at what it apparently came here to do: both it and Duran managed to escape in the chaos.

Harvey had managed to pick himself up from the floor and forced Raynor out of his reverie. "Sir, are you alright? What the hell was that thing?"

"Bad hybrid." The commander replied, exasperated. "Really bad hybrid. Is everyone ready to go?"

"Three down, but everyone else can walk, thanks to our big freaky friend, I guess. I suppose I owe you five credits…"

"And Stanley an apology. Let's move it people! I don't want to be around when more of them show up."


	58. Chapter 58

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

"My lady, before we leave…"

Not again, Kerrigan thought. Tiberias had spent a lot of the past few days worrying and trying to plan for the battle ahead. It was obvious he didn't like the idea of a rescue mission. Mostly because he didn't care for Raynor the way she did. Then again, no one probably cared for Raynor the way she did. His main _rational_ concern, however, seemed to be the risks involved. The Swarm wasn't exactly designed for rescue missions: too big, too unwieldy, and too unsubtle for a task that generally required something resembling finesse. As a result, he had been pestering her and Izsha for days with questions about the number of enemies and useful strategies. Much to Kerrigan's chagrin, he never seemed to be entirely pleased with her answers. If he kept this up, he would worry himself a stomach ulcer one of these days. Assuming Zerg could even get ulcers…

Of course, Kerrigan didn't have a proper answer half the time. A fact she didn't want to get reminded off, given the stakes involved. Her specialization in the Ghost Program was wet work, assassinations, not rescues. Sure, ghosts were trained to be reasonably good at anything, but in this case, basic training might not be enough. They were, after all, trying to rescue a high priority target, who may be dead for all they know, from a planet they knew almost nothing about. Her old instructors would have called it insanity. Even experts would have considered this nearly impossible. Then again, they weren't the ones owning their own personal army of genetically engineered killing machines.

"Stop worrying, we'll be fine. We've got an entire fleet to back us up."

"Yeah, about that…you said you wanted peace between us and the humans, right? If you do, would sending a giant armada really be a good idea?"

Kerrigan was a bit surprised. They soundly defeated the Dominion at L-540 and were even stronger now. "Why not? We kicked their asses last time. The best they can do right now is engage targets of opportunity. If we show up with a fleet, we'll be too big to be an easy target."

"Or we could end up provoking them and cause them to build even bigger and scarier weapons. They found the artifact, after all. Who knows what else is buried around here. Look at the behemoth, now that we're done upgrading it. Try convincing anyone that you come in peace when you have that thing floating around."

Tiberias was correct about that, at least. The behemoth was armed to the teeth and had enough armor to shrug off anything short of a high-yield nuclear bomb. Right now, it looked like a cross between a battleship and an overgrown shark. Aggression was built into every part of its design. No one who saw it would think that it was anything other than a warship. They wouldn't be entirely wrong.

"With the hybrid army closing in, I really don't see that as a bad thing. An arms race might just yield a stronger ally."

"In theory, yes. However, by now the humans must be aware of the fact that the longer they wait, the more dangerous we become. If I were a Dominion commander, I'd hit the Swarm as soon as I could, before the Zerg would become too big of a threat to stop."

"The way I see it, we're already too big a threat to stop…"

"With all due respect, that's what the Queen of Blades said when Za'gara wanted more resources to fortify Char. We all know how that turned out."

Yes, Kerrigan knew how that turned out. Arrogance does come before the fall. Whether or not the Char invasion was a bad thing, however, was a matter up for debate. "So, what do you want me to do?"

"We know Commander Raynor is somewhere on Dead Man's Rock. The problem is, so does the Dominion. Knowing Morrigan, he will probably be aware of your 'relationship' with Raynor, so he'll inevitably have some ships waiting for us around the planet. Not enough to effectively engage us, but enough to warn the rest. If we show up with everything we have, the Dominion will get a good look at us and the phrase 'giant Zerg armada' will be on the headlines of every newspaper in the sector. Trying to convince people of your good intentions after that will be pretty much impossible."

As much as she didn't want to admit it, Tai had a valid point. It wouldn't take much to turn the entire Dominion against the Swarm. All they had to do was show the public that the Zerg were still a credible threat. If things didn't go as planned, the repercussions could turn out to be much more severe than Kerrigan would like. "So, what do you have in mind?"

"We take only the Leviathan and a group of flyers to the planet and leave the rest at the edge of the system. The Dominion fleet has a relatively high response time and their sensors have always had difficulty spotting us, so it'll take a while before the fleet finds you. Unless Raynor is hiding in some subway tunnel and has his radio turned off, we should be able to find him quickly and escape before the entire Dominion fleet warps in and starts tearing us a new one."

"And if the Dominion fleet finds us before we are able to leave?"

"Then we can warp in the rest of the Swarm and do it your way. Hopefully Morrigan isn't braver than you think he is."

A fair enough plan. Cain's worries weren't entirely groundless, and Kerrigan did want to prevent an all-out war with the Dominion if she could. Zerg flyers were very fast and, as far as Kerrigan knew, her psychic call for help was pretty much impossible to jam, unlike Terran radios. The plan wasn't without risks, of course, but it was a lot better than showing up guns blazing and potentially starting a conflict that would leave humanity defenseless when the hybrids would arrive.

"Alright, we'll do it your way." The queen decided.

"Okay, me and Larry will meet you at the leviathan."

"No, wait. I don't want you with me."

"Excuse me?"

"If the Dominion jumps on us, I want someone to direct the space battle. Someone I trust, who isn't involved in the actual searching part of the mission."

"So you want me to play captain? My lady, I'm sure that we have someone more qualified for the job. I have no experience or training in anything like that."

"Neither do I or any of the broodmothers, but you know Morrigan better than anyone. Besides, you don't have any formal military training either. That didn't stop you from breaking me out of prison, right?" In spite of the queen's best efforts, Cain did not seem particularly reassured. "You'll be fine. Take Me'dea with you and let her give you some tips. Chances are, we'll be gone before the Dominion even realizes we are there, and all this talk will be for nothing. Everything is going to be alright."

As Kerrigan departed for her leviathan, she could hear her underling mutter: "Great, she just jinxed the entire operation…" She couldn't help but smile. Him and his silly, human superstitions…

**Behemoth, Marrakesh**

Me'dea strut along the corridors of the massive 'vessel', as the former humans had started to call the behemoth. The massive creature that she had tended to for much of her existence had been completely rebuild. The transition from heavy transport to battleship affected nearly every inch of it. Even the insides were altered to provide more structural support. By now, walking through the behemoth felt more like exploring the bowels of a human battlecruiser, rather than a proper, Zerg flyer. It was amusing how readily the new Queen accepted Terran design philosophies like turrets and 'reactive armor', whatever that may be. The broodmother liked studying human thought and philosophy, but their technology was still completely baffling. While some of the Terran ideas worked, others seemed more questionable. Case in point: the 'bulkheads'. Every ten meters or so, there was an extra layer of armor that could form a sealed door. According to Tiberias, the idea behind this was that the corridors could be sealed to prevent the air from venting out into space in case of a so-called 'hull breach'. Of course, he forgot was that broodmothers had very short legs and that these hurdles would be very annoying for her.

All-in-all, the behemoth wasn't the same anymore. While Me'dea was proud to see that the fruit of her labors had become such a critical component in the Swarm's plans, she still felt like an alien in her own home.

The broodmother slowly made her way to a room behind the behemoth's skull. It had been repurposed as a command center, or 'bridge' if you will. Me'dea understood the reasoning behind it: the skull was the most well-armored part of the entire ship and thus the safest place to be when the fighting started. When the queen placed Tiberias in charge of her fleet, the broodmother expected that he'd use it as a hiding spot. She did not expect him to turn it into a reconstruction of a starship's command deck. Me'dea should have known, of course. They were still carrying around pieces of salvage from downed Dominion cruisers. What else could they have been used for?

"I see you have been busy redecorating."

Cain, seated on what looked like a captain's chair, turned around and said: "Well, you can hardly expect me to hide in an empty room for the duration of a battle, now can you? Even I have standards."

"Of course you do." The broodmother noticed a mocking tone in his voice. It intrigued her. "Why did you include this holographic table? We are all telepathic. It is completely unnecessary. Better yet, how did you even get it operational?"

Cain sighed. "I'm not very good at ordering around large groups of Zerg the way you or the queen can. Visualizing a behemoth, half a dozen leviathans, and countless smaller flyers is a little too much for my little brain to handle. As for how it works, would you accept 'techno-sorcery' as an answer? It might spare you the headache I gave you when you asked me what makes Izsha tick…"

The former human knew her well, it seemed. Then again, Me'dea's lack of technical expertise was a rather well-known fact. "And this chair! It took a dozen drones to move it up here."

"It's real leather! If the Dominion sold this thing, they could have afforded another ship. We can't just let it go to waste! Besides, you can't be a proper captain without a command-chair, now can you?"

"If you are about to ask me to refer to you as 'Captain', I will be forced to disobey. You have done nothing to warrant such a title."

"Bah, spoilsport. You're just jealous that the Dominion doesn't make chairs in your size."

The broodmother didn't retort. Instead she just looked at him, inquisitively, before asking: "Is there something amiss?"

"Uhh, no? What makes you think that?"

"You are deflecting my questions with infantile humor. Given my understanding of human psychology, I would say that either your mind has finally shattered, or there is something that you greatly fear, but do not wish to talk about."

"Fear is a weakness, Me'dea." Cain snapped back.

"Only a perfect being is without weaknesses, Tiberias," The broodmother continued in her usual, calm tone "and I know for a fact that none of us are perfect."

Cain slightly lowered his head. "Guess, we're not… Nothing's wrong, apart from the fact that the queen has just entrusted me with a job that I'm completely unqualified for and that the entire Zerg species could go extinct if I screw up…" Me'dea was somewhat surprised at this sudden display of honesty. "Dammit, we're heading in way too soon. We should have waited another month or so before making a move. Every Dominion soldier in the sector is going to be looking for us. We'll be walking right into a trap!"

"From what I understood, you conjured a plan to minimize the chance of detection. Though my tactical acumen is somewhat limited, I do believe that the strategy is sound."

"It may be the best plan we have, but that doesn't make it a good plan."

"I believe that the Raiders gave us their codes and communication frequencies, did they not? Tracking down Raynor should be a simple task."

"Oh, she'll find him. It's not that I'm worried about. I'm worried about what we'll lose while we wait for the queen to dig the people's hero out of his hidey-hole. Zerg aren't that good at defense, you know, especially in space."

"We have maintained holdings throughout the sector. They have been attacked, and we have successfully defended them in some cases. I do not see how this is any different."

"In the days of the Queen of Blades, things were different." He explained with a sense of pride in his voice. "Back then, we almost always vastly outnumbered our enemies and we didn't have a single weak point that the enemy could exploit. Supply lines weren't an issue, because our hatcheries could breed all the reinforcements they need. The loss of a hive cluster or even a leviathan was only a minor setback at worst: we could replace them with ease. Losing individual leaders was never a problem either: the queen herself usually remained on Char, far from the battles themselves, and could telepathically command a brood directly if their broodmother was killed. We were stronger, smarter, better than our enemies could ever hope to be." The smile on Tai's lips slowly faded. "Now, all those advantages are gone. Sure, our ships still outclass theirs, but we only have a few of them. If the Dominion hits us with everything they've got, I'm not sure if I can hold them off. If you want someone shot or a door bashed down, you call me. This, however…I honestly have no idea how to handle it."

"Perhaps. Still, the absence of plans or experience does not automatically result in failure. If you are as incompetent as you think yourself to be, why do you still draw breath? You have served us for three years, if I'm not mistaken. Far longer than most Zerg."

"Most of the time I've been up against idiots that couldn't outsmart a Zergling if their lives depended on it. Other times, I get out thanks to luck and my Zerg physiology alone. Now, however, we're up against highly trained captains and generals, and I don't think Zerg regeneration will help if I get hit by a yamato blast."

Me'dea took a step closer, thinking hard about what to say next. "I have been told once that the best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best. He only needs to fear men who have never held a sword in their lives, because he cannot predict what they will do. We are often far more capable than we give ourselves credit for. After all, would her majesty have shouldered you with this responsibility if she did not believed you could handle it?"

"Alright, you made your point. I'll stop moaning now." Cain laughed. "You know, I wonder if this is what Terran commanders feel like when they hear the Zerg are coming. I might actually start respecting them one day…"

The broodmother smiled, knowing that she was successful. "Well said. Perhaps there is still hope for you yet."

"I did say: 'might'."


	59. Chapter 59

**Tunnels, Dead Man's Rock**

The Raiders were running like hell. Duran's goons could catch up with them any moment, but Raynor was determined to press on anyway. He had beaten the odds dozens of times before. He wasn't going to die to these…whoever they were.

After a while, they realized that they had lost sight of their pursuers. Raynor ordered everyone to take a rest behind a ruined train car. Jogging in power-armor was always incredibly exhausting and the men wouldn't be able to keep up a pace like that forever. Those suits were designed for protection and carrying heavy weapons, not running a marathon. At least the Raiders were safe here, for the moment.

The tell-tale clank of a spike bouncing of Raynor's armor told him that moment had come and gone. Without thinking, the whole group pulled themselves out of their hiding spot and returned fire. It wasn't going to be enough, however, and the commander knew it. They couldn't move while pinned down like this and the longer they waited, the more reinforcements would inevitably show up. Raynor had to do something…

He pulled one of the breaching charges out of his suit and primed the detonator. Eying a vulnerable-looking piece of wall, he hurled the device and prayed that his throwing arm wouldn't let him down. Breaching charges were meant to bring down doors, not walls, but their options were limited.

The explosive hit its mark, collapsing the wall and ceiling with a deafening thunder. Raynor and his men took cover as pieces of plascrete rained on them. Nevertheless, the gambit paid off. With the way behind them sealed, the enemy wouldn't be able to catch them.

"Son-of-a… Whoever did that, can you warn us next time? I think my eardrums are bleeding…" One of the Raiders complained.

"Well, sorry about interrupting your little shoot-out. Someone has to take the initiative around here." Raynor replied. "Everybody still alive? Good. Now, tell me I didn't just blow up our only way out of here."

"Negative, sir. This place is like an ant-farm, with all them maintenance tunnels criss-crossing the place."

"But doesn't that mean the bad guys could go around and catch up with us again?" Another asked, somewhat worried.

"Then we'll just have to hurry and blow up tunnels wherever we can. If we can limit their movement, we can escape without being overrun. I'm getting us all out of here, one way or another." Raynor told his men, doing his best to sound as confident as possible in a situation that was, once again, not going very well. "Harvey, what's the quickest way to the surface?"

"Shaft 5-C, followed by a quick jog through subway route 49. There are at least half a dozen other tunnels crossing our path, however."

Raynor checked his pockets. If they were careful, they should have enough bombs to collapse the routes behind them. "Good, we'll go that way. Once we're out of these tunnels, we can lay low in the city and plan our next move. Let's go people, we're wasting daylight!"

**Subway Tunnel, Dead Man's Rock**

A close call. Too close, for Duran's liking. He was bleeding quite badly and was certain that several of his organs had been ripped apart. C-14 impalers are such crude weapons. Destructive up close, but crude nonetheless. Only a species that couldn't understand the meaning of subtlety would have ever created such a thing. In spite of the weapon's power, Duran knew that he would almost certainly survive anyway. He's had worse than this in the past. Still, it would take time to repair. Time he didn't have. While wounded like this, fighting anyone would definitely be out of the question, as was hunting down the bastards who shot him. He'd have to leave that to his minions and pray they would succeed. His master did not approve of failures…

As Duran found out the hard way, the Terran's use of primitive technology belied their cunning. The Raiders were much smarter than he had given them credit for. Within minutes, they were able to figure out his true intentions using only the smallest shreds of evidence. For a race that has only a few telepaths, they seemed remarkably adept at reading the minds of others. Duran wondered what he did wrong. He was a telepath himself: he could have acted sooner. Should he have turned around and try to kill them when they discovered his plan? No, the Raiders were much better soldiers. Duran's pawns would have been cut down anyway. Better to stall him and allow Ka'leth jump in and save the day. Attacking would have been too risky, as well. The Zerg queen still seemed to care about Raynor. If he were to die, 'all hell would break loose', as the humans would say. Even the Ancient wouldn't be able to predict what would happen then.

Looking back, he realized that it would have been wiser to ambush them on the surface with a larger contingent of troops. Maybe he could have forced them to surrender. Then again, he was dealing with _the_ Commander Raynor. He probably wouldn't allow himself to be taken alive, or worse, find a way to escape in spite of the odds. This wouldn't be the first time the rebel escaped certain doom. At least his men would still had a chance to catch up with the Raiders…

A thunderous explosion could be heard in the distance. Looking through the minds of his men, Duran realized that the humans were sealing the tunnels behind them. So much for catching up… The Raiders were probably headed to the surface of the planet, where they could easily disappear. If he was lucky, they might still be able to cut them off when they tried to make a run for the exit. It would certainly be Duran's best chance to stop them. If they somehow made it out of the tunnels, it would be much harder to track them down in time. Either the rest of the Raider fleet, the Zerg, or the Dominion would come looking for the rebels sooner or later. If they found the rebels before Duran could get them, ambushing Kerrigan on his terms would be much more difficult. He couldn't afford to risk that. The Ancient's plans have been set back enough already.

Ka'leth sat in a corner, nursing his severed arm. Duran could practically taste the rage seething from the creature's mind. Understandable, given the circumstances. The hybrid was so close to succeeding. It arrived just in time to keep them from killing Duran before tossing the humans around like ragdolls. They were completely at its mercy, powerless to stop it, but the hybrid could not have imagined having to fight one of their own kind. This…other hybrid…Stanley, the humans called it, leapt out of the shadows to save the Raiders. To save _humans_. Worthless, useless apes that knew nothing of perfection. Ka'leth kept wondering why, although it couldn't come to a conclusion.

Duran, however, was wondering how the creature got there in the first place. It was most likely a survivor from that Moebius facility the Dominion destroyed. If it was, it could be considered a small miracle that it was still walking around. Probably the Zerg regeneration built into the creature, assisted by Terran medical technology. Even more surprising is that it would even want to help the humans. Duran offered it an alternative: he had telepathically reached out to it in the tunnels, trying to convince the creature to switch sides. It refused. It even tried to alert the Raiders about Duran's intention. It couldn't speak to them directly, but its incessant growling was one of the reasons the humans managed to figure out what was really going on. In short, Stanley may have just saved their lives, whether they realize it or not.

But why? What would the Raiders have that it couldn't get from him? Food? Shelter? Protection? Duran could have provided those in spades. It didn't make any sense. If there was a logical reason why it would side with the humans out of its own free will, Duran couldn't see it. Perhaps Raynor made a really persuasive argument? As unlikely as that may seem, if there was anyone who could pull it off, it would certainly be him. He was the man to hand his enemies a velvet glove of peace. Maybe Duran would understand the creature better once he'd captured it. Its eventual interrogation would certainly be interesting…

**Tunnels, Dead Man's Rock**

"Fire in the hole!" Raynor yelled, before another breaching charge detonated. Like the walls before it, the tunnels crumbled, separating the rebels and their pursuers once again. Having gained a little more breathing room, they confidently pressed onwards. The exit was nearby. Once they reached it, they'd be home free.

The hope of an easy way out was shattered when the Raider's point man froze in place. Looking around, Raynor realized why: they were at a crossing between two wide-open tunnels with virtually no cover, one of them containing an entire squad of well-entrenched mercs, led by another damned hybrid. Raynor looked around. There was no way to sneak past them without being spotted. Running past them would probably lead to them being shot to pieces. There weren't that many of them, but this was probably just an advance guard meant to slow the Raiders down until reinforcements arrived. They were trapped.

"Well, sir, we're a little stuck. How are we going to get past them?" The point man asked.

Raynor looked around some more, hoping to find a solution. "See that pillar between the two tracks? I'm guessing that if we were to take it down, the tunnel will collapse on top of them."

"You mean the pillar behind a line of angry mercs using the wrecks as cover? That's a one-way trip. There's got to be a better way." Another soldier said.

Raynor looked closely at the breaching charge in his hands, contemplating. "Unless you want to blow us up as well, I don't see how. You men give me some covering fire and, with a bit of luck, I won't be crushed under the rubble." Who was he kidding? In spite of his best attempt to keep up a brave face, he knew this job was a suicide mission. He'd probably be gunned down before the bomb detonates. Still, if it would cost a life to get his men out of here, it would only be fitting that Raynor would be the one paying the price. He got his men into this mess and he promised to get them out, one way or another. After all, he always kept his promises…

Without a word, Stanley took the bomb from the commander's hands. "Stanley, that's not a ration bar. Give it back." The hybrid hissed at him angrily in response. Even though the creature couldn't speak, Raynor could see in its eyes what it had in mind. "You want to take the bomb to the pillar, don't you?" Stanley bobbed its head up and down. The human in him wanted to protest, but the commander in Raynor's head knew that the hybrid had a much better chance. It was tougher, faster, and far more resilient than a human ever would. "You're not gonna take no for an answer, are you?" The hybrid shook its head sideways. Raynor prayed he'd be forgiven for this. That Kat would forgive him for this…

The rebel took a few steps forward and looked the hybrid square in the eye. "I'm going to set the timer on the bomb. You'll have three minutes to get to the barricade, throw the bomb, and start running back before it goes off. We'll give you some covering fire, try not to get shot, alright?" Stanley raised one of its scythes in what appeared to be a mock salute. Did it even know it was being sent on a suicide mission? Damn thing was little more than a kid… Raynor pushed that thought out of his head. Times like these, when he had to send people to their deaths, were the days he hated being in charge.

The commander pressed the button that started the countdown on the bomb. Immediately afterwards, he yelled: "Covering fire!" The men followed his example, laying down a hailstorm of gunfire that had the mercs running for cover.

An instant later, Stanley began to sprint towards the barricade, as fast as its legs could carry it. In spite of the Raider's best efforts, some of the mercs managed to take a few pot-shots. The hybrid raised its scythes by its head, trying to deflect the stray bullets. Spikes from all directions began to cut into its flesh, but Stanley clenched its teeth and ignored the pain. It focused on moving forward, and nothing else.

In the chaos, it didn't notice the other hybrid barreling towards it. The two collided, and Stanley fell to the ground. Its attacker walked towards it, ready for the kill, when a well-placed kick pushed the assailant into the Raider's line of fire. Without even checking if the aggressor was dealt with, Stanley grabbed the bomb again and pushed forward, fighting through its agony. Finally, the creature got to the barricade, and hurled the bomb. It passed out from its injuries, right before the world collapsed around it…


	60. Chapter 60

**White Star, Dylarian Shipyards**

"Any luck on the Protoss Fleet, commander?"

The White Star's executive officer shook his head in defeat. "No, Captain Williams. Their fleet is led by one of those motherships. Damn cloaking field is turning the whole lot invisible." He smacked one of the consoles, hoping to get a better signal. Naturally, the machine had nothing but scorn for his attempt to make the damn sensors work better.

Williams sighed. Their Protoss allies were still an enigma, a fact that bothered him without end. "Can we get any closer? We have stealth detection capabilities, right?"

"Well, we could in theory, but not without the Protoss knowing about it. Even with the White Star's sensor array, I can't really make an accurate prediction from this range. All I know is that it contains a dozen or so capital ships, as well as a large number of support vessels. Can't give you anything more than ballpark figures, though, not without sending spies. That would be…well…wrong. You know, sir, I hate to bring up the obvious, but why don't we just ask them? I'm sure they'll understand…"

"We did ask them. The aliens just said that they brought 'a sufficient force to wipe this taint from the stars'. Melodramatic bastards. If they want to be our allies, they should learn to trust us a little more." Williams sighed yet again. As invaluable as the Protoss aid was to their cause, it did come with its fair share of headaches, starting with the fact that it's scarring the hell out of his men. "I mean, it's not like we're plotting their murder."

"But we _are_ plotting their murder, sir."

"No, we're trying to find out how to kill them if they choose to turn on us. I think it's perfectly fine to investigate possible threats to the Dominion. I'd be a lousy captain if I didn't." The captain realized that the difference between 'murder' and 'pre-emptive strike' was subtle at best. Still, it was both his right and his duty to be suspicious of their 'allies'. "Anyway, keep up the good work. I have to go and disappoint the general. Let me know if you find something else." Williams noticed that his XO was unusually quiet. "Something wrong?"

"It's just…"

He knew where this was going. Being a good captain apparently meant that you were supposed to be a part-time psychologist as well. Wasn't the White Star supposed to have a professional one on board so that the captain wouldn't have to deal with people's personal problems? Oh well, off to do the boring half of his job. "Alright, spit it out."

"It's the Protoss, sir. A lot of the men aren't exactly thrilled at the idea of working with them. If UNN is to be believed…"

Oh, not this again. "What did I tell you about UNN?"

"That they're a bunch of bullshit vomiting lunatics, sir."

"Exactly. That's why I only let the men watch it on comedy night to keep the brass from yelling at us. You shouldn't believe everything you hear on the news, especially on UNN. Not thinking just rots your brain. I need this ship crewed by soldiers, not mindless drones. But to answer your question: if the men give you any trouble, just tell them that we'll all die horribly if the creepy mouthless aliens aren't around. Self-preservation is a very good motivator."

"UNN might be wrong about the various human factions in the sector, but I don't think they're wrong about the Protoss. I mean, they are way more advanced than we are. Who knows what's going on in those giant brains? This could easily be part of an ancient plan to rid the universe of all life, for all we know. I may be overreacting…"

"…you are overreacting…" Williams interjected, though he couldn't help but share the man's sentiment.

"…but that doesn't change the fact that I can name at least three planets of the top of my head burned to ash by these guys. They care as much about us as I care about the ants I crush under my boot."

"If you're thinking about mutiny, you probably shouldn't be telling me about this. I really don't want to throw people out the airlock."

"Please, sir, I'm serious. I've talked to some of the men. They can…sense that something bad is about to happen and that the Protoss involvement is probably the reason why. These guys don't mess around, sir, even when compared to our…'illustrious leader'. We know so little about them, and what little we do know is, quite frankly, terrifying. I know we're not the only crew with doubt issues. It's beginning to affect the morale of the fleet."

The captain couldn't argue with that. He stayed in touch with many of the other ships in the fleet and they were reporting similar problems. Crews were getting more agitated. Brigs were starting to fill up. Treasonous talk was worming its way into the hallways. The captains clamped down on this sort of thing the best they could, but they knew they were merely delaying the inevitable. It would only be a matter of time before something happened that would make the proverbial powder keg explode.

What the fleet really needed was a compassionate, charismatic leader. Someone with the will and ability to get everyone back in line. Unfortunately, this particular fleet was led by General Morrigan. He had more of a hand-off approach to leadership. It's not like he wasn't capable of swaying a crew: he could, and would, yell a 300 pound drill sergeant into submission if he had to. Heck, he somehow managed to convince the colonies to send a few more ships; a feat Williams had considered impossible at this point. When asked how he managed to do it, Morrigan simply smiled and said: 'you don't want to know'. However, when it came to 'hearts and minds' in his own fleet, he didn't seem care that much. It's like he's afraid to make friends with the people he serves with. Williams could understand that, to an extent. If your entire strategy revolves around sending people to their deaths, it's easier if you think of them as packets of minerals and vespene gas. Losses during combat is as inevitable as the sunrise, and as a commanding officer, you have to be able to keep your distance from the people that serve under you. If you don't, you probably end up insane after a few battles.

This was no excuse for allowing morale to plummet, of course. When asked about it, however, Morrigan told the captains that it was their jobs to keep their crews in line, not his. As long as the crews operated at peak efficiency, it wasn't his problem. If they didn't, well, apparently Dominion warships have airlocks for a reason. According to Dominion military regulations, it isn't the general's responsibility to deal with rebellious crews. How typical of him to stick to that part of the regs. Of course, the advantage of fighting the Zerg is that crews generally do not need much in terms of motivation to keep them going in a battle. It was common knowledge that the Swarm wasn't known for extending mercy or allowing soldiers to retreat. Most of the time, anyway. Their behavior had been…peculiar of late.

"We're up against the Zerg. Don't forget that. Mentioning the Z-word generally gets people to fall in line these days."

"Captain, you know that's not going to be enough anymore. We're led by a general who sees us as expendable pawns in a game he's playing. Fear of the Zerg is only going to push these guys so far." The man seemed to sag a little in his chair. "I'm practically praying for a Zerg attack these days. For the sake of my mental health, we really need something to happen. Preferably something involving an explosion, or ten."

"Look, Morrigan is an ass, but he's a very competent one. I hate defending him to the men as much as you do, but when push comes to shove, he is the best, probably the only, ass who can pull this off. We'll win this, and when we do, you can write in your report just how poorly our good general tended to our morale."

The XO just stared ahead. "I wish General Warfield was still here. Or at least someone who could give a decent speech. I still don't understand why he thinks working for the Zerg isn't the worst idea in the world…"

"I guess we won't get a real answer until we catch up with him and ask. We'll probably find him once we figure out…" Williams noticed that one of the consoles had suddenly started beeping like crazy. "…where the Zerg are…" Morrigan showed up again. Of course, he did. The man had the uncanny ability to sense when the proverbial organic waste hit the fan.

The general began barking orders to the rest of the fleet. Apparently a Zerg leviathan had been spotted near Dead Man's Rock. It took a few seconds for Williams to connect the dots, but eventually he figured out why: Raynor. Whatever the reason, Morrigan seemed convinced that the rest of the Zerg 'fleet' couldn't be far away and that this was their opportunity to take them out. He brought everyone to high alert and started relaying the planet's coordinates to the Protoss.

"…I think your prayers have just been answered." The captain muttered. The Dominion was going to war again. Part of him was already wishing that it hadn't.

**Leviathan, Low Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

Kerrigan looked down at the planet below her through the thousands of eyes of her minions. Before her was the rather monumental task of finding a small band of rebels on a planet filled with rebels. A needle in a haystack, indeed. It didn't help that they were on a time limit too: Izsha noticed several Dominion warships in orbit maintaining a blockade over the local spaceports. They were probably looking for the same thing, considering that this planet didn't really have anything else of value. At least, as far as the Zerg knew.

Deadman's Port was probably the best place to start looking. Horner said that Raynor was last spotted there, after all. Of course, if Jim had any sense, he would have left the area or moved deeper into the city. According to the Raiders, Deadman's Port was a perfect place to run to when you're trying to outrun your past. Kerrigan briefly wondered if it might even be a nice place to retire, considering her history.

Dozens of overseers began to scour the city. There was an interesting history behind the creatures. In the old days, when Kerrigan was still working for the Sons of Korhal and the lines between hero and villain weren't so damn blurry, stealth teams were always ordered to stay away from Zerg strongholds. Back then, the overlords could easily sniff out even the most skilled operative. The large, clumsy, and largely docile creatures had practically become bogeymen to spec-ops soldiers, ghosts hunting the ghosts. You could run from them, but you couldn't hide, no matter how hard you tried. If you didn't see them, it just meant that they were right behind you, trying to decide which of the Zerg under their command would have the honor of chewing your face off.

All this changed when cloaking technology improved. The senses needed to spot operatives using this kind of tech were simply too expensive to be applied to all the overlords, everywhere. The Swarm was forced to develop a new, specialized creature, and thus, the overseer was born. Of course, overseers were difficult to breed en-mass and were an easy target thanks to the large number of creepy, googly eyes stuck to their bodies. This made offensive use of stealth operations against the hives viable, regardless of what the Zerg did. A fact that probably saved thousands, if not millions of lives over the years.

Some part of Kerrigan's mind liked this story. The Swarm had been forced to invest heavily in creating a specialized creature exclusively for hunting cloaked soldiers. A massive strain on their resources, since the overseers themselves were good for little else. It was living proof that the Zerg can be outmatched in some areas. Even the mighty Swarm had its Achilles Heel, if people could learn how to abuse it. Nothing was invincible and there were some things even the Zerg couldn't adapt to. Knowing this made her feel much better, even as the Zerg in her scolded the rest of her mind for taking pleasure in seeing a weakness she couldn't fix.

Izsha joined the search, looking for any communication signals the Raiders may have sent out. Kerrigan helped too, trying to 'feel' the planet with her mind. What she found was, frankly, troubling. The city below them should filled with thousands of minds, all probably staring at and cowering before the giant Zerg monster that suddenly appeared in their skies. Instead, she found something more closely resembling a feint smear and…hybrids…

Living, active, Protoss/Zerg hybrids…

Something was wrong. Really, really wrong. They shouldn't be here this soon. The Zerg weren't ready yet…

Kerrigan calmed herself. There weren't that many of them, so this couldn't be a full-scale invasion. Not yet, anyway. She had a job to do. There was a good chance that Jim would know more about these things and why they were here.

Just when the queen managed to calm herself down a bit, Izsha spoke, warning of a fleet jumping into the system. Kerrigan still wasn't any closer to finding the commander. She didn't know who they were yet, but it didn't matter to her either. She knew they didn't come here for shore leave. Kerrigan reached out to the rest of the Swarm, silently praying that their own fleet would buy her enough time.

It had to. She probably wouldn't get a second chance if this failed.


	61. Chapter 61

**Behemoth, Deep Space**

_Don't panic._

Tiberias had been repeating those two words in his mind ever since they left the Marrakesh system. Whatever happened, whatever they'd find, he couldn't allow himself to panic. The queen left him in command of the entire fleet while she was off on her rescue mission. Panicking was about the worst thing he could do.

_Don't panic._

The words had practically lost their meaning. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. His trophy was just a little too small for his body, adding to the feeling that the sky was about to fall on his head. The wait was proving to be unbearable, in spite of Me'dea's best efforts to get him to calm down. Contrary to what the queen seemed to think, Cain knew in his gut that this was just the calm before the storm. The Dominion must have known that Raynor was important to her: she wouldn't have risked springing him from Char if he wasn't. If the humans had any sense, they would at least have left some ships behind to watch for any Zerg activity. If they did, the rest of the Dominion fleet would be upon them soon. When that happens…

_Don't panic. _

Truth be told, Tiberias hated space battles. His strength and skill was nearly useless in the void. It felt so detached and clinical: press a button and something ten-thousand kilometers away explodes. The Zerg never did all that well in large space battles. The fury and ferocity that made the Swarm an almost unstoppable force on the ground was often worthless there. Usually, the Zerg would avoid most of the enemy space defenses by brushing past them and make a beeline for the planet's surface. This time, however, that strategy wouldn't work. They had to hold the line, in space, against an enemy that probably would outnumber them, without support from any hive-clusters. Not that the hives would make much of a difference anyway: battles like these would often be decided in less than an hour. Far too little time to breed additional leviathans to turn the tide.

Suddenly, the queen's voice rang in his mind, ordering to come to her assistance. As expected, the Dominion had arrived in force. Another time, Tai might have muttered something along the lines of 'I told you so', but he was feeling too scared to bother.

Fear. He hadn't genuinely felt that in a long time.

Not long enough…

Immediately, the fleet ground into gear. The Dominion would waste no time getting into position. Neither would the Zerg. Within minutes, the fleet arrived at a debris field near Dead Man's Rock and was treated to the sight of dozens of Battlecruisers and a _freaking_ _Protoss mothership_. Judging by the distortion in the stars behind the mothership, the Protoss must have brought other vessels as well…

_Don't panic._

The mothership was maybe a third of the behemoth's length, but Tiberias knew better than to underestimate anything the Protoss would throw at him. Still, he couldn't help but notice just how flimsy the craft looked. The slightly triangular ship seemed more like a floating city than an actual warship. There were very few visible weapons for a ship this size, and the shields didn't look like they were much stronger than that of a carrier. If the Zerg could bring down its shields, the ship probably wouldn't last very long. The rather exposed central khaydarin core looked like an easy target. Assuming, of course, that it hadn't erased the Zerg from existence with space voodoo before they got the chance to hit it. According to the rumors, motherships were supposed to be able to manipulate space and time and for once, Tiberias was inclined to believe them. Who knows what tricks those gray-skinned creeps had up their sleeves.

Speaking of Protoss: how the _hell_ did the Dominion get the aliens to cooperate with them? Cain didn't know, or cared, all that much about Protoss culture, but even he knew that an alliance between the two should have been impossible. Dominion propaganda had demonized the Protoss almost as much as they had demonized the Zerg. On the Protoss side of things, their 'honor culture' nonsense would never allow them to work with the likes of Arcturus Mengsk. The situation wasn't even that desperate for either of them: the Protoss have been left alone for the past few weeks and the queen had gone out of her way _not_ to hit any important Terran colonies. The Zerg weren't on the brink of victory and weren't about to devour the entire sector. It was so unlike either of them to even _want_ to work together. Especially the Protoss: an alliance of opportunity like this is far too sensible for the aliens to even consider. As intelligent as they supposedly were, only a few of them have ever demonstrated the ability to think outside the box. Their stubborn pride alone should have prevented this from happening.

Whatever the reasons for their alliance were, it didn't matter in the end. There was a Terran fleet and a Protoss fleet and they weren't shooting each other. Bad news for Tiberias, but even worse news for the queen: the enemy fleets were already on an intercept course with her leviathan. Immediately, Cain ordered the fleet to move out of the field, hoping that the enemy would focus their attention on the more immediate threat.

Only a few minutes after the Zerg moved out of the debris field, the Human/Protoss fleet changed its course towards the newcomers, stopping just at the edge of weapons range. Well, at least Tiberias had their attention. Of course, having someone's attention isn't always a good thing…

_Don't panic._

The queen would want him to settle this as peacefully as possible. They didn't need to be destroyed. In fact, with the hybrids on the way, destroying the enemy fleet could end up bite them in the ass later on. Cain knew he had to find some way to stop the almost inevitable space battle from occurring. He didn't think any of them would be feeling diplomatic, so trying to ask them to kindly go away probably wouldn't work. Aiming his guns at the enemy ships might scare them off, but it could also backfire, literally. Threatening a superior opponent isn't the smartest thing to do, generally speaking.

No, the best thing to do is to stay where he was and stare the enemy to death. Tiberias figured that if he didn't make any aggressive moves, he might be able to delay the enemy until the queen completed her search. If they did start shooting, he'd at least have the moral high ground. It probably wouldn't help much, but it's better than nothing.

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

Alarms and shouting on the bridge blended together in a beautiful cacophony. What was supposed to be a relatively easy kill just turned into something far worse. The lone leviathan the fleet was hunting apparently had friends, and lots of them too. Another pack of leviathans and a cloud of smaller flyers, led by what probably used to be the behemoth, showed up out of the debris field and started taking up position between the Dominion fleet and the planet. Other than that, the Zerg just sat there, looking threatening.

Why, Captain Williams didn't know, and that scared him more than anything. If knowledge was power, the Dominion fleet was about as dangerous as a new-born baby, right about now. Rather than sitting back and figuring out what was going on, the fleet had pounced on the Zerg the instant the first leviathan arrived. It came here, seemingly looking for something, or someone. Probably Raynor. It must have been more important to the Swarm that the captain realized. The Zerg wouldn't have sent this much if it wasn't and the Raiders had had quite a few dealings with Kerrigan lately…

The behavior of the Zerg fleet itself was quite strange, too. The standard Zerg space combat protocol, if such a thing even existed, was usually to drown the enemy in superior numbers of small, expendable flyers. Here, however, they just sat there, doing nothing. They could have done horrific damage to the Human/Protoss fleet by attacking first, but instead chose to give up their advantage by revealing themselves. What could they possibly gain from doing this?

Morrigan's began to bark orders, immediately silencing everyone else. "All ships, staggered line. Move into position and prepare to fire on my mark…"

"Wait, sir. Something is wrong." Williams interrupted.

"Yes, there's a massive Zerg armada in front of us." The general replied. "One that will probably kill us if we don't deal with it ASAP."

"Sir, if they wanted us dead, why haven't they opened fire? The debris field gave them a huge benefit. Using any advantage you have is pretty much on the first page of every military manual, ever. Why throw it away?"

The general sat down, contemplating. "You think it's a trap? Ensign, scan the debris field. Is there anything else out there?" The officer shook his head. "Nothing at all? Hmm…"

"Maybe the Zerg aren't here to fight? Maybe they just want to pick up what they're looking for and leave us alone?"

The general looked at him incredulously. "Do you seriously believe that? Even if you're right, letting the Zerg ride off into the sunset is hardly a good idea. We're food to them, nothing more. We'll have to deal with them sooner or later. I'd rather do it now, before the peace-time budget cuts reduces our fleet."

Williams wanted to reply, but he couldn't find the words for it. There was something wrong with the Zerg, but he couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was. They had been acting differently. Hell, they shouldn't even be here in the first place. There's nothing on this forsaken ball of rock that would be worth risking so much. The only explanation he could think of is that the Zerg were here for Raynor, but that didn't fit into the classical Zerg doctrine either. If Raynor was an expendable pawn like Morrigan seemed to think, risking an entire fleet just to save him seemed like a massive waste of resources. The Zerg queen could care for the rebel for personal reasons, but that went against everything the Dominion knew about the Zerg. Omnicidal bug-monsters suddenly discovering this thing we call love? The captain wouldn't even have considered it he had a better theory at hand…

"Sir, energy spikes on the Protoss ships! They're opening fire on the Zerg fleet!" One of the bridge officers yelled.

"We'll worry about the 'whys' later. Right now, we have a plague to remove." Morrigan replied, his lips curving into a vicious smile. "All ships, charge Yamato Cannons and aim for the squishy parts of that behemoth. Let the Protoss deal with its armor."

A red-orange glow formed at the prow of the ships. A powerful magnetic field formed, designed for only one purpose: to encapsulate a miniature star and fall apart the instant it hits solid matter. A few seconds later, the bolts were pushed away, into the enemy fleet. In a heart-beat, they connected with the Zerg, and the sky had a dozen suns, if only for a moment. In the end, only a small cloud of blood remained from their victims.

It was a pity that cannons didn't hit the victims the General was hoping for…

"Sir, they're… Their fliers are intercepting our fire!" An officer cried to his horror. "Only a couple of them got trough."

"Damage?"

"Negligible, sir."

The general frowned. He did not see that coming. "Smart bastards… We need to get rid of those flyers. All ships, prepare…" Morrigan was cut off when he noticed the Protoss mothership falling apart. Countless shots pounded the shields before they finally failed. The hull itself didn't last much longer: for all the Protoss' architectural and engineering skills, they were still bound by the laws of nature. No structure could survive direct gunfire indefinitely. Eventually, a lucky shot pierced the central khaydarin crystal, as the mother ship vanished in a massive ball of light. Even though a vacuum cannot carry sound, the Zerg's message was loud and clear.

Not loud enough for the Protoss, however. Unfazed by the loss of their flagship, they pressed on as the cloaking field failed around them. Whether it was confidence, desperation, or sheer mindless bravado that caused them to press on, Williams couldn't say.

"All ships, pick your damn jaws up from the floor and support the Protoss fleet!" Morrigan roared, snapping everyone out of their reverie.

"Are you blind, sir?! Didn't you see what that thing did to the Protoss flagship?"

"I know exactly what that thing just did, Williams. If we let the Zerg get away now we'll be facing three more of them next week, and we won't have Protoss around to soak up the damage. No, this ends today!"

Williams lowered his head and complied. He was a soldier and he wouldn't disobey orders here, on the battlefield. Nevertheless, he was nervously eying the escape pods, and hoped there would be enough for everyone…

**Behemoth, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

They were still coming.

After the fireworks display he gave them, the crazy bastards were still coming.

Imagining the looks on the enemy's faces when their Yamato Cannon barrage did nothing was highly therapeutic, but the feeling didn't last. Taking out that mothership yielded a very pretty explosion, but it didn't have the desired effect. Tiberias had hoped that his opening volley would demoralize the enemy fleet and cause them to run away, but it seemed to do quite the opposite. Maybe they were desperately suicidal. Maybe they wanted revenge. Or maybe they could smell the Zerg's weakness…

The mass drivers were very powerful weapons, but the recoil proved to be much, much worse than he had hoped. It turned out that the gun turrets couldn't fire a shot without causing a hemorrhage or a broken bone somewhere in the ship. Firing a few shots in close succession would have been enough to cause noticeable strain in the superstructure. Giving a full starboard broadside like a thousand year-old Man-O'-War nearly cost him the ship. Needless to say, he wasn't going to do that again anytime soon. Tiberias made a mental note to himself to test his creations next time he had a good idea.

While the guns had quite a kick, they also packed one hell of a punch. As self-destructive as Cain's firing antics were, it was enough to bring the mothership down, if only barely. Had the Protoss brought a proper warship instead of a floating city (or used a few strategically placed pieces of armor), maybe they wouldn't have lost it in the first few minutes of the fight. Still, they didn't seem to be particularly bothered by its destruction. They were getting closer by the second and were already charging their weapons.

Tiberias turned the ship and primed the port side guns.

This was going to hurt…


	62. Chapter 62

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

The White Star shook as a nearby void ray exploded, a wave of scourge finally proving too much for it to bear. Morrigan lowered his head. It was never easy to watch a beautiful ship like that go down, even if it was an alien one. To him, however, the loss of a ship was bad for a different reason. The allied fleet grew weaker with each ship lost, which would make their final victory that much harder in the end.

Truth be told, the two fleets were quite evenly matched. In spite of being horrifically outnumbered, the Zerg vessels were much larger than their Terran or Protoss counterparts and armed accordingly. The battlecruisers had trouble even getting close enough to fire, let alone do any real damage. Some genius in Dominion R&D thought it was a good idea to arm the massive, slow-moving, and ponderous vessels with short-ranged laser batteries. Normally, that wouldn't be so much of a problem: the ships' heavy armor and defense matrices would last long enough to eliminate most opposition before Zerg anti-air, like seeker spores, could overwhelm them. However, the sheer volume of fire was proving too much. Defense matrices were designed to handle ten, maybe twenty impacts before collapsing, not a volley of several dozen every few seconds. Yamato cannons, with their superior range, could solve the distance problem, but their slow rate of fire and the sheer amount of reactor power needed to fire it even once made them unpractical. The few shots that did manage to hit their mark did almost no visible damage. The behemoth's armor was just too thick and seemed to regenerate too fast. The best Morrigan could do was screen the Protoss and hope their advanced technology would be able to cut through their hides.

That said, the Protoss were having plenty of problems on their own. The Zerg must have realized that the aliens were the only ones who could do any meaningful damage to them and were directing most of their fire against the Protoss ships. Needless to say, the results were predictable. Scourge had proven to be particularly effective: they were small, fast, difficult to detect in a vacuum filled with debris and dueling starships, and most of the fighters were too busy trying to keep the corruptors at bay to intercept them. Decent point defense guns, like the ones on the Terran ships, would have saved many of their vessels from destruction. Why the _hell_ the Protoss engineers forgot about those things was something the general would never understand. This unbelievable gap in the Protoss arsenal annoyed him greatly, though not nearly as much as their solution to it. When their shields start to fail, the Protoss began to move behind the Terran battlecruisers, seemingly intent on using them as meat shields until their regular shields had time to recover. While the general was pragmatic enough to understand their reasoning, he still felt that there was something iffy about using your own allies as cover, especially since he was part of the fleet being used as a human meat shield. Not to mention that it seemed very unlike the Protoss to do something like that. Either the aliens are extremely desperate or they finally realized that they'd never defeat the Zerg if they shackled themselves with their precious honor.

The Zerg themselves seemed to be having trouble of their own, however. One of the leviathans finally began to fall apart under a concentrated barrage of fire, but not before ramming into a carrier and destroying it. The corruptors put up one hell of a fight, but the sheer numbers of allied fighter craft forced them to stay near the relative safety of the Zerg's 'capital ships'. This caused the Protoss to bring out one of their newer capital ships: a large, crescent shaped warship armed with some sort of long-range energy weapon. Like a scalpel, the vessels sliced through the corruptor swarm and onto the behemoth, cutting away armor plates and frying weapon emplacements with surgical precision. For a moment, the battle seemed to be going in the allies' favor, until the Zerg retaliated with their heavy guns. Though crude and relatively inaccurate, the massive weapons struck the Protoss ships with the force of a sledgehammer, breaking their shields with one shot, before vaporizing the vessel underneath with a second.

The battle had been going back and forth like this for a long time now, neither side willing to give in or back down. Morrigan wasn't sure who would buckle first, or how much longer it would take before the two fleets destroyed each other. Whatever would happen, however, he couldn't allow the Zerg to get what they wanted. He might not be able to defeat them, but he couldn't allow the Swarm to win. Williams seemed certain that they were here for Commander Raynor, still stranded on the surface of the planet. While the general didn't know why, if the Zerg wanted him, Morrigan would do everything he could to keep that man out of their hands.

He fetched his communicator and contacted the leader of Team Green, a squadron of ghost operatives the Emperor had assigned to him. Morrigan liked these men, even if he often had trouble fitting them into his strategies. They were essentially the perfect soldiers: highly competent men and women that followed orders without question or hesitation, their only drawback being that they were too few in number and too valuable to use in a brute force assault. Still, they were perfect for the current job and they weren't much use in space, anyway.

"What do you want, sir?" A slightly monotone voice muttered through the console. A bit of a rude way to address a superior officer, but Morrigan didn't really care. Manners were generally the first victims of the mandatory mind-wipes all ghosts undergo on a regular basis.

"I have a mission for your team, lieutenant. I want you to contact the blockade fleet and ask them for the last know location of Jim Raynor. Get down to the surface, undetected, and find him." The blockade fleet had been following the rebels since the day the Dominion fleet arrived. Although they found the Raiders after a week or so, Morrigan told them to leave the rebels be. You can't catch a predator without bait, after all. They were more useful on the planet than captured in some prison. Until now…

"As you wish, sir. We'll take him out."

"Negative, green leader, we need him alive! We think the Zerg are after him and we want to know why. Capture him and any of his followers, if possible. Raynor is the priority target, the rest may be captured at your digression. Alive for leverage would be preferable, though."

"Understood, sir. Consider it done." No questions asked. Most men would at least wonder why the general wanted Raynor alive, but not these men. If only everyone in the Dominion military was so dedicated… "Where do you want us to take the targets after we found them?"

"Take them to the rendezvous point ASAP, and make sure that you aren't spotted by the Zerg. It'll greatly complicate this, and future, missions if you do."

"Yes, general." Immediately, the ghost closed the channel. Calm, focused, and direct. Morrigan liked this man. Mere minutes later, a dropship undocked from the ship's hangar and flew towards the planet. The Raiders would probably be found, captured, and spirited away from the system within the hour. The general turned his attention to the battle again. Preventing the Zerg from winning is nice, but wiping them out would be even better.

**Tunnels, Dead Man's Rock**

Raynor wiped the dust and filth of his visor. The explosion certainly did its work. He used his comms to check the rest of his men. With some relief, he found out that all of his men survived. Well, all but one…

Kat leaped over the barricade and ran towards the cave-in, screaming Stanley's name at the top of her lungs. The commander in him wanted to hold her back: it wasn't safe and there could still be hostiles around. Not that he could stop her anyway. The medic practically treated the hybrid like it was her surrogate child. There was no way in hell she would move a muscle without being certain that Stanley was dead. No good mother would leave her child behind, and no good man would dare dragging a mother away from their children without at least saying goodbye.

Like a woman possessed, Kat dug her way through the debris. In-between her sobs, she muttered things like how 'it wasn't right' and how 'he deserves better than this'. When Raynor tried to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, she snapped back, screaming: 'He'll be fine! He survived a nuke, he can survive this!' None of the Raiders had the heart to tell her that their scanners couldn't detect any signs of life in the rubble.

It took only a minute of frantic digging to find Stanley's head. Or what was left of it, anyway. Its skull was cracked in multiple places, and it looked like the hybrid's neck was broken too. The creatures eyes were still a shade of blue, but the glow in them was gone. They were…hollow. Lifeless. With a proper med-bay, they might be able to keep its body alive, but the mind…the soul…was gone. It was dead, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Kat slowly began to realize this as well. She clutched its head, furiously sobbing and apologizing in the vain hope that wishes and sheer willpower would somehow bring it back to life.

Raynor snapped himself out of the sorrow-induced trance he was in. They couldn't stay here. Duran and his goons would be on their tail soon, and he couldn't afford to be caught in the open again. There would be a time for grieving, but it wasn't now. Though it would break his heart, he had to do something to get everyone, the medic in particular, to pull themselves together and move on.

"Kat, we have to go. Please." The commander said, in the softest, most fatherly voice he could manage.

The medic didn't move an inch and continued to weep uncontrollably. Raynor sighed. This wasn't going to be easy. Given the situation, it would be more worrying if it was…

"Kat, Stanley wouldn't have wanted his mommy to break down like this. We have to get out of here before more of them arrive. He wouldn't want his death to be for nothing."

His words seemed to be getting though. The sobbing slowly subsided, and Kat looked her 'child' in the eye one last time. "You know, it kinda looks like he's smiling. Probably just the way his jaw is shaped, but…"

"I think he was smiling, Kat." Raynor interrupted. "They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die. I guess he just liked what he saw."

The medic smiled softly before gently placing Stanley's head down on the ground and saying her final goodbyes. She hadn't made her peace yet, but the commander believed that she'd be able move on eventually.

Wasting no more time, Raynor and his men made a break for the exit and ran back into the city unmolested. Duran and his fellows would have much more trouble tracking them there, he reasoned. More than an hour had passed, and it seemed like the enemy had lost them, at least for now. The commander thanked his lucky star. The Dominion threat was still there, off course, but…

Raynor looked up and noticed that the Dominion fleet had left close orbit. Instead of ships, he could see explosions in the distance: the tell-tale sign of a battle in space. Judging by the number of explosions, a really big one, too. Still, they were too far away to see who was fighting who and, more importantly, who was winning. He tried to zoom in to get a closer look, when one of his men fell to the ground, clutching his shoulder.

'Sniper!' Raynor thought, swearing as he and his men leapt to cover. While the Raiders were busy looking at pretty flashes in the sky, someone used the opportunity to line them up and shoot them. How could he have been stupid enough to allow his men to let their guard down in the middle of a warzone? The commander briefly wondered if he was getting to old for all this…

Another shot rang out, wounding another man in the shoulder, and a third soon after that. Raynor looked up, trying to find the culprit, but to no avail. He realized that these guys were good. A little too good. They couldn't be mercs working with Duran. Three perfect shots in the shoulder from long range: no normal human could be _that_ precise. That only left…

Without warning, a rifle materialized out of thin air. Attached to the rifle was a man in a full environment suit. In a monotone, yet strangely commandeering tone, he barked: "Lay down your weapons. You are under arrest."

Great. Dominion ghosts. Just what this day needed. Putting on the bravest face he could muster, the commander replied: "Now, now, no need for all this commotion. I'm sure we can work something out. What's your name, anyway?" Truthfully, having a gun thrust in his face did tend to make Raynor nervous, but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to go down with some semblance of dignity.

"My name is irrelevant. Lay down your weapons. You are under arrest." A man of few words and even less imagination. Wonderful.

"Well, 'Irrelevant'," If the ghost caught the insult, he sure didn't show it. "I just think it's rude…"

"I have orders to take you alive, but not your men. If you come quietly, I'll let them live. If you don't, I'll disable the servos in your suit and make you watch while my snipers gun each of them down in front of you."

Raynor looked the man straight in the 'eye', looking for any sign of emotion. Even though the ghost was wearing a mask, he could see that his attacking was dead serious. On reflection, the operative's ability to joke was probably cooked out of his skull, courtesy of the mind-wipes the Dominion Ghost Program loves so much. Raynor looked at his men. None of them seemed thrilled at the prospect of dying and he wasn't looking forward to watching them getting murdered, either. They would probably be tortured and, eventually, executed, but that still gave them a better chance to escape plan than getting slaughtered here. Reluctantly, he decided to surrender. Once again, the Dominion managed to catch up with him. He really was getting too old for this…


	63. Chapter 63

_A/N I know it's been a while, but I've been busy and my real life unfortunately comes first._

**Behemoth, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

Tiberias cursed. Another leviathan had just been disabled. It would probably survive if the Zerg could push the enemy away from the planet, but that wasn't exactly an easy thing to pull off. The enemy was pressing on every front, trying to swamp them under sheer weight of numbers. The Dominion fleet, in particular, seemed unusually ferocious, throwing cruisers down his throat like they were nothing. Whichever suicidal lunatic was in charge of that bunch would have a very difficult after action report to write if he managed to win. Still, their relentless assault was taking its toll. While Cain had been able to parry every blow the humans sent at him, the losses were starting to become more apparent. The Zerg were down to just three leviathans, and the swarm of lesser flyers was growing thinner by the minute. The behemoth was still in reasonable shape, but that probably wouldn't last long if its escort was taken out.

Tai wondered if the humans were attacking out of desperation or if they genuinely believed they had the upper hand. There were only so many ships in the Dominion. If the Zerg won, it would leave the human military dangerously undermanned and their empire exposed when the hybrid invasion hits. It would be better to force the humans back so that they'd have some ships left to save themselves, but Cain feared that that wouldn't be an option. As far as they were concerned, the Zerg were the greatest threat to the galaxy, one that would only grow stronger if they can't stop it here and now. They probably were right about it too: apart from the queen herself, each and every single one of the Zerg was replaceable. The same couldn't be said for the humans…

Another group of human battlecruisers turned towards one of the remaining leviathans, preparing an attack run. Immediately, Cain ordered it and its escort of corruptors to the far side of the behemoth, hoping the Dominion would follow. With some luck, he might be able to blind-side this pack of ships with a volley from the guns and take it out with minimal effort. That would give him some time to focus on the other thorn in his side: the…

The…

Something was wrong. He couldn't detect any cloaking fields or the shimmer in the star-field behind the fleet. There were feint signatures of something, not uncommon with their technology, but nothing that made any sense to the infested Terran. He ordered the scan of the entire surrounding area, but it came up empty. How was that even…

Maybe there was something wrong with the tactics table? He kicked it a few times, but the image didn't change. Apparently, the ancient human repair ritual known as 'Apply Foot until it Starts Working' wasn't as tried and true as he had hoped. Either that, or the table was displaying the truth, which would have made even less sense.

Maybe there was something wrong with his head? He turned to Me'dea and asked her to give him a good smack. Although she didn't understand what it would accomplish, the broodmother complied anyway, hitting him with the back of one of her talons. After recovering, Cain turned to the table, only to find that its results hadn't changed. Great. Now he had a headache AND nonsensical data.

Tiberias returned to his chair and focused on the battle again. Maybe Izsha or the queen could offer more insight later. Right now, he had a fight to win. If the situation was as he thought it was, the Zerg had just gained a major advantage and he couldn't afford to let it go to waste. Still, one question kept drilling its way through his skull:

Why the _hell_ did the Protoss just disappear?!

**Bridge, White Star, High Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

General Morrigan clenched his fist in anger. He had hoped that the battle would have been over by now, but the Zerg were annoyingly persistent. They seemed to be hitting the Swarm where it hurts, but the fleet had paid dearly for it. A full third of the Terran ships were already destroyed or disabled and he had no idea how long the remainder would be able to keep up.

All wasn't lost yet, however. By the looks of it, the Zerg 'fleet' was as badly bloodied as his was. They may have the size advantage on their side, but Morrigan had vastly superior numbers on his. That, combined with the help of the Protoss, gave him the edge he needed. If they could stop the Zerg today, losses were irrelevant.

Suddenly, one of the bridge officers ran towards him with a worried look on her face. "Sir! Sir! The Protoss are gone!"

"Calm down, ensign. What do you mean 'gone'?"

"They've disappeared, sir. Telemetry scans indicate that it's a mass recall."

"Check again. They're probably trying to flank the Zerg." Protoss don't betray or abandon their allies, especially in times like these. At least that's what Morrigan had always thought about them. Given what was at stake here, it wouldn't make any sense for them to run. "Find me their fleet and open comms with them if you can. I want to chew that idiot commander's face of for not warning me about this."

"Sir, you don't understand. I already checked it twice. There's no Protoss presence left in the system. They've abandoned us."

Morrigan scowled. Even if she was right, there's no need to be so melodramatic about it. Her attitude wasn't helping anyone. Apart from the Zerg, of course. "Well, thank you. Now, quit sniveling and get back to your station. We still have a job to do." Finding the Protoss and skinning them alive would have to wait. The Zerg were a more immediate threat and had to be defeated now, with or without allies.

"What?!" A voice boomed from the other side of the bridge. Williams, of course. "You can't seriously think that we can still beat these things? We don't have the firepower to take them down anymore. We have to retreat while we still can."

"If we retreat, the Zerg will be back in even greater numbers, and we won't be able to stop them thanks to the losses we've suffered today. I understand that you don't like seeing your men die, but if we run now, we're all as good as dead anyway. We have to fight them here, no matter the odds."

The debate was interrupted by one of the ensigns, warning them that the Zerg were on the move, heading directly towards the fleet. Without the support from the Protoss, the defensive line fell apart and the armada was being cut to pieces. "General, let me tell you what is about to happen." The captain said, with an icy calm in his voice. "They're going in for the kill. They've smelt blood, and now they're moving in to finish us off. The Zerg are going to kill as many of us as they can before our commander swallows his pride and retreats!"

"Are you deaf, or just very stupid?" Morrigan replied, with barely contained fury. "Zerg can replace their losses almost instantly. The Dominion can't. We. Won't. Run. Away. If we do, humanity is done for."

"And if we don't, humanity is still done for and we won't be around to do something about it. We can fight them, we just can't do it here. There is no logical reason to stay. Surely, you and your magnificent mind can see that. Or is this matter so personal to you that you can't allow yourself to retreat? Are you willing to put all our lives at risk for your vendetta?!"

The general stood up from his seat. The temperature in the room seemed to drop by twenty degrees. "You think this is personal…"

"Isn't it?!"

"Of course, it is!" The general roared. "Thanks to those beasts, billions are dead, or worse. Everyone on this ship, myself included, has lost someone to them. I'm not going to sit by and let them roam free any longer. This ends today!"

Captain Williams looked his superior square in the eye and said: "Article 3, Section 18 of the Dominion Military Regulations states that if a commander is mentally, physically, or emotionally unable to bear the burden of leadership, he or she is to relinquish his or her command to the highest ranking officer remaining. Your unwillingness to withdraw when there is no tactical or strategic reason not to leads me to believe that you are no longer able to effectively command this fleet. You are going to order the fleet to withdraw, right now, or I will relieve you from command and do it myself. I want to see the Zerg brought to justice as much as everyone else does, but I won't throw our fleet away in the name of revenge." He grabbed a nearby communicator and forced it in Morrigan's hands. "Give the order, or report to sickbay. Your call."

Morrigan was stunned. He couldn't believe one of his own men would turn on him like this. Discontent was an inevitable part of a commander's life, but outright mutiny in the middle of a battle? Williams would be, in all certainty, court-martialled for this when the war is over, even if he was in the right. The fact that he was willing to do it anyway…

The captain would never have tried this unless he was certain that the men had already lost faith in their commander. When that happens, the battle is lost, regardless of what the enemy is capable off. There was no point in continuing the fight any longer when your own people no longer follow your orders. He could shoot Williams where he stood, but that wouldn't change anything. After a long pause, Morrigan said: "All ships, emergency warp. Randomize your jumps and retreat to the rendezvous point." He turned off the communicator and turned to the captain. "You may not be able to see it yet, but you've just signed our death warrants. God have mercy on us all."

**Leviathan, Low Orbit over Dead Man's Rock**

Hours.

She had been searching for hours, and still she found no trace of him. A fact that was beginning to piss her off. Kerrigan knew Jim was good at hiding, but no one could have remained unnoticed for this long. She had enough overseers to block out the sun if she wanted, yet he still managed to elude her somehow. What's worse, she was beginning to get that niggling feeling in her gut that her plan wasn't working. It had happened before in her human life, and it usually meant that her current mission was about to go sour. She had the same feeling on Tarsonis, four years ago, when she was driving the Protoss out of New Gettysburg. Everything seemed to be going her way, but she was so focused on the threat in front of her that she forgot about the threat sneaking up behind her. The result of that mistake was…unfortunate, both for herself and the entire sector.

Izsha managed to hack into the Dominion's network and discover Raynor's last known location, less than a day ago. It gave the Zerg a good starting point in their search: the Raiders couldn't have gotten far, after all. Unfortunately, Kerrigan's overseers already scouted out the possible search area. Twice. To no avail. Maybe they just missed him or he got further away than expected? Maybe the Dominion's coordinates were wrong and they were looking at the wrong place? Or, most worryingly of all, maybe someone else had already taken him off-planet…

On reflection, him being dragged off already was probably the most likely scenario. The Dominion had known where Jim was, but they hadn't bothered to capture him yet. When the Zerg entered the system, they were almost immediately attacked by a massive fleet. Tiberias had been worried that Jim might have been left as bait and that they were walking into a trap. He turned out to be right, and they took the lure hook, line, and sinker. Jim was a prize to them. Of course, the Dominion wouldn't allow her to just walk away with the trophy. Jim was far too important to the both of them. They'd have had some sort of back-up plan to find or eliminate him in case their fleets failed. The odds of finding him now were remote.

Kerrigan lashed out in anger, putting a dent in the leviathan's hull. He probably wasn't even on the planet anymore, and she knew it. Her blood was beginning to boil. Someone needed to pay for this, _now_. The battle in space was more or less over. Cain had managed to force the enemy fleet to retreat already. Not that ordering a bunch of fliers around in space would be able to calm her fury. No, she needed to kill something herself, in person, preferably with her bare hands…

There were still hybrids on Dead Man's Rock, however. It would have to do. Heedless of Izsha's objections, the queen made her way to the sacs. Yes, dropping into potentially hostile territory with minimal back-up is a stupid idea, but she really, really didn't care right now.

With their primary objective, Jim, now beyond her reach, Kerrigan would salvage this operation the best she could. She would crack open their skulls and tear whatever memories they had out of their minds. She might even discover some useful intel along the way. Even if she didn't, it would certainly make her feel better.


	64. Chapter 64

**Bridge, White Star, Deep Space**

As the ship travelled further and further away from Dead Man's Rock, the tension in the air slowly seemed to dissipate. In spite of everything, the White Star had managed to survive relatively unharmed. Not a small achievement, given the massacre they just left behind. Right now, everyone was just happy to be alive.

Of course, no one wanted to be the one to bring up the fact that they had just been thoroughly beaten. Or the fact the Zerg would recuperate much faster than they ever could. Or the fact that the only reason any of them were still breathing was because their captain had been willing to commit treason.

Captain Williams knew their relief would be temporary at best. It was common for soldiers to celebrate any reprieve they got before they fully realized what had happened. He honestly did not want to be around when the truth caught up with the crew. Still, being the captain, it would inevitably fall onto him to restore the morale of the soldiers. He just hoped that he could pull it off before half the crew decided to jump out the airlock. The general certainly wasn't going to bother…

Morrigan had already left the bridge and had gone to his quarters. As much as Williams hated to admit it, he could understand why the general didn't want to retreat. Dead Man's Rock was their best opportunity to end the Zerg threat, after all. Still, the captain stood by his decision. He'd have to, or he'd be destroyed when the inevitable court-martial would come. Feeling that he owed the general some sort of explanation, Williams went to his quarters. To his surprise, he found the man sitting behind his desk, staring at a picture of all things. Noticing the captain's presence, Morrigan put it back in a drawer, stood up, and shot Williams the iciest glare he could muster.

"I always figured your feelings for your subordinates would come to haunt me someday." The general said, in a tone seemingly devoid of emotion. "I just wished it had been better timed."

"You know I won't throw the lives of my men away needlessly, general." Williams answered, calmly. "No commander worth his salt would."

The general didn't seem to be affected at all by the accusation. "Whether you like it or not, you've done just that."

"Seriously, general, what hope did we have? The chance that we could win after the Protoss abandoned us was…what…a fraction of a percent?"

"Still better than no chance at all! That fleet we mustered; that was it. I can't get us more ships to fight the Zerg. Not because the emperor won't let me have them, or because of some political bullshit, but because _we don't have enough of them left_! Between the losses taken on Char, the defections, and the casualties of our own campaign, our fleet is a shadow of what it once was. I don't have the exact reports yet, but I know we lost around half our fleet back there. All in all, the Dominion military is probably reduced to less than a third of what it was a year ago. What little we have left is needed to police our own planets to make sure the Dominion doesn't implode. We had _one_ chance to make it right, _one_ chance to kill the Queen of Blades and end this once and for all, and YOU let it slip through our fingers. She'll be a heck of a lot more careful in the future. I doubt we'll get another opportunity like this again."

"So…I should probably report to the brig then…"

Williams fully expected him to make that an order, but he didn't. "No, you won't. You're not getting off that easily. We don't have enough competent officers left. The way I see it; rank, regulations, and the rules of conduct won't matter anymore soon. We provoked the Zerg, Captain. Four years ago, they made the mistake of assuming we were nothing more than cattle. The Queen probably thought that we wouldn't be a problem anymore, so she let us go. Probably with the intention of harvesting us at some point. Use us as guinea pigs in her twisted experiments. Now… No, we've proven to be a real threat to them. No one has ever gotten as close to wiping them out as we have. If the Zerg have any sense, they'll wipe us out to the last soul."

"We're not alone in this. There are many others still willing to fight." Even as he said the words, Williams could guess the reply.

"As you may be aware, our good emperor's choices in diplomatic policy haven't exactly been stellar. We've alienated just about everyone in the sector. Even if, through some miracle, we can convince them to talk with us at all, what would it matter? The Protoss, obviously, won't be helping us. The Morian and Umojan fleets are pitiful compared to ours, the Raiders are in league with the Zerg, and don't even consider contacting Earth! Even if we somehow managed to gather every human ship in the sector, we still won't have the numbers to capitalize on the weaknesses of the Zerg Swarm. Assuming we even find any before we all die."

"The Zerg have a weakness. That artifact we used to stop them the first time still exists. We can use it as often as we have to."

Morrigan sneered. "Tell me, Captain. If your enemy has a super weapon that can incinerate an entire army but lights up your sensors like a Christmas tree, what would you do?"

"Blow it up from orbit. Only way to be sure…" Williams replied with a slightly defeated sound in his voice. "We still have Commander Raynor, right? Didn't you send a team to capture him? He's probably the closest thing we have to a tactical expert on the Zerg."

"I did order his capture, and it was successful, for whatever good that will do. Like I said, even if we can find a weakness with his help, I don't think we can turn it into an advantage. We just don't have the numbers to pull off another attack like that anymore. Assuming, of course, that the Zerg let him help us in the first place. If he really is infested, which is probably the case, he could be feeding us false information for all we know. I doubt we can trust a word he says. Even if he tells us the truth… If there's a way out of this mess, I sure as hell can't see it." Morrigan turned around and faced the wall, slowly lowering his head. His posture was as close to 'defeated' as Williams had ever seen. "I know I sound hopeless, but make no mistake. If this is the end of days, I have no intention of going down quietly. Neither should you, so I won't mention our incident to the brass for the time being. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a difficult report to make for the emperor. I have to tell him to… ensure the survival of our species, somehow…"

**Deadman's Port, Dead Man's Rock**

The sac slammed into ground with a now-familiar 'splat'. Kerrigan was itching for a fight after her unsuccessful search. She tried feeling her surroundings, looking for something that could act as an objective, something she could rip apart. Izsha was probably going to chew her face off for heading off alone when this was over, but the queen didn't really care. In her view, anger isn't something you should leave to fester. It was better to get it out of your system as soon as possible. If you don't, then your rage will let itself out at some point, usually at a moment when you don't want it too. At least she'd be able to turn her stress relief into something useful down here. It beats using the leviathan's insides as a punching bag, and the leviathan would probably agree.

Before she could even finish her search, gunfire erupted all around her. A switch flipped itself in Kerrigan's head. She put a lid on her emotions and began concocting a plan to remedy the situation. People were shooting at her, obviously. C-14's, by the sound of it. Judging from the thoughts she could pick up, they weren't part of the Raiders. Conclusion: enemy marines. Shoot to kill.

Using the overseers flying overhead, she managed to pinpoint the location of the soldiers firing at her. They were spreading out, trying to surround her. Against most enemies, a sound strategy. Against a very angry Zerg-infested ex-ghost with a thirst for murder and her own personal armada of living spy planes, not so much. Kerrigan activated the cloaking mechanism in her suit and disappeared from sight, not stopping to wonder just how the tattered remains of her suit managed to keep her invisible.

The soldiers, realizing that their quarry had eluded them, spread out in a search pattern. Kerrigan smiled. If she could take them out one by one, silently, this whole mess would be much easier to deal with. A gunshot would be too loud, so she pulled out a weapon that she rarely got a chance to use: the blade Tiberias made for her. Guns or psionics might be safer, but there was nothing quite like the feeling a well-placed stab would bring. It was quite ironic, really: he made the weapon to keep enemies away from her, not to put her in danger by letting her try to stab a man in power armor. Moving swiftly and deliberately in the way she had been trained since childhood, Kerrigan closed the distance between herself and the nearest marine. With a quick, downward thrust, she forced the weapon through the visor and into unfortunate man's body. Clumsy, crude, and dirty. For someone who was once called 'Queen of Blades', she realized that she wasn't all that good with her sword. Probably needed more practice. In spite of her rather unsophisticated swordsmanship, the man was dead before he hit the ground. The only noise he made was a soft, barely audible gurgle. The others didn't hear a thing. Good enough for now. All that was left to do was rinse and repeat.

After finishing off the last of the marines, Kerrigan turned her attention back to the surrounding area. There were still dozens, if not hundreds, of minds in a kilometer or so radius. Some were dim, others were brighter. Most were human, but some were clearly alien. Hybrids, definitely. One particular spot caught her attention: several of these alien minds were standing in very close proximity to one another. A gathering of sorts, less than a kilometer from where she was now. Worth checking out.

Immediately, Kerrigan began to run towards the congregation, not even waiting for the overseers to finish mapping out the area in front of her. Her skills, wits, and invisibility were more than enough to get past the few patrols undetected. Avoiding these (surprisingly) simple-minded mercs was easy: most of them were too focused on the road to notice the small, agile phantom darting through the buildings. They must have thought she brought a vehicle with her. Silly humans. Between her ghost training and whatever mess the Zerg had pumped into her body over the past four years, she'd probably get around the city faster on foot.

Eventually, the overseers managed to find out where the hybrids were. They were on a moving freight train that was heading out of the city. Kerrigan ran towards it at full speed, closing the final gap by telekinetically hurling herself on the train. As she landed, the ex-ghost immediately pulled out her rifle and began securing the train car. The only other occupants were a handful of mercs, led by a firebat, guarding the passage to the next car. She 'convinced' one of them that there was cake in the firebat's fuel tanks that could be recovered by blasting it open with gunfire. The result was fiery, lethal, and highly entertaining.

As Kerrigan continued to fight her way to the target, resistance slowly began to increase. At the same time, she noticed that the some of the hybrids seem to have disappeared. They probably were using a teleportation device to try and escape. She stepped up her pace, hoping to catch at least some of them before they all could escape. If she could capture at least one of them, Abathur would throw her a party. It would definitely make this trip worthwhile.

The Zerg queen was getting closer, and the hybrids knew it. Before, their thought patterns reeked of confidence, but as time went by, they were beginning to become more and more alarmed. Resistance was also increasing exponentially. If Kerrigan didn't know any better, she'd say that the hybrids were afraid of her. The thought seemed ridiculous. Cosmic horrors getting spooked by a little mutant witch in a half-shredded ghost uniform. If she didn't see the evidence herself, Kerrigan would have dismissed it altogether. Then again, all life fears death, and she was nothing less than a goddess of destruction.

Another dropship flew by, trying to land troops behind her position. They were trying to sandwich her between the guards ahead and the reinforcements. The queen would have complemented them for their cleverness, if it weren't for the fact that this dropship was about to meet the same end as the other two the mercs sent after her. Kerrigan peered through the scope of her rifle, aiming for the large rear engines of the craft. She fired four shots at it before it burst into flames, causing the dropship to lose altitude and crash. Viking craft arrived in the attempt to give the poor soldiers some mech support, but the best they could do was slow her down. The problem with fighting on a moving train was that there wasn't a lot of room to maneuver. With some well-aimed telekinesis, the clumsy fighter/mech hybrids landed just a little off. Just far enough to make sure it falls off the train when the gravity accelerators keeping it aloft shut down. While Kerrigan knew that it was unprofessional, watching the mercs' toys getting crushed under the train brought a vicious smile to her face.

Eventually, she fought her way through the guards protecting some sort of large container. Judging by the markings, it was probably shipped here along with the normal supply runs. Kerrigan knew the hybrids were inside that thing. Their stench permeated the entire structure. By now, there were only three of them left. Probably a good thing, since she'd have to fight them on her own. The ex-ghost did have the element of surprise, however. The hybrids were clustered around a strange machine of Protoss origin. Undoubtedly, it was the teleporter they were using to escape. She loaded an EMP-round into her rifle, took aim at the machine, and pulled the trigger.

There was an explosion, coupled with a bright flash and the cackling of electricity. When the smoke began to clear, she found herself staring into the eyes of a very, very angry hybrid creature. It charged forward, roaring and screeching. Kerrigan unloaded her rifle, but the bullets only slowed it down. In the blink of an eye, it had closed the distance and tossed her aside like a ragdoll. But the Queen of the Zerg wasn't beaten so easily. Whatever restraint she may have had quickly evaporated. She threw her rifle aside and pulled out her sword, preparing to rip the monstrosity apart limb from limb. The hybrid lunged at her, but Kerrigan dodged it, slicing off one of the creature's back-tentacles in retribution. The abomination quickly regained its footing and struck back, sending the ex-ghost flying with the flat end of one of its scythes. The queen returned the favor by psionically lashing out against the creature, rupturing blood vessels, shattering bones, and tearing muscles apart. The hybrid howled in agony, but still continued on. Kerrigan finally finished it off by disemboweling it with a wild, horizontal slash, before hitting it with the force of a telekinetic freight train, reducing it to a smear on the wall.

As the adrenaline began to wear off, the ex-ghost looked at her handiwork and smiled. She had just beaten one of the dreaded hybrids in single combat. Exhausted, but exhilarated, she looked onto the other creatures. One of them died in the explosion. The other was alive, but unconscious. Considering that she was tired and almost certainly wounded from the fight, this was definitely a good thing. Her blood-thirst had been sated anyway.

Abathur might just make her a saint: one hybrid alive, another dead, and another turned into pâté.

Absolutely worth the effort.


	65. Chapter 65

**Leviathan, Dead Man's Rock**

Drones scurried around the ship, carrying the hybrids (or at least what's left of them) and anything else Abathur found interesting. They seemed strangely driven today, more so than usual. Maybe Kerrigan was just projecting, but it looked like they were trying to finish up as fast as they could so that they wouldn't have to be around the hybrids anymore. Odd, considering the fact that they were supposed to be mindless…well…drones. The hybrids just seem to have that effect on things. It certainly had that effect on her, now that she was back on the ship. Creepy bastards.

Speaking of creeps, Abathur slithered besides her, examining his 'testing material'. After a while, he turned to the queen and asked: "I found this most curious Terran creature. He was badly burned muttered something about the 'cake' being a lie. Your doing, I suppose?"

Kerrigan closed her eyes, remembering the poor bastard. The way she dealt with him was pretty brutal, even by her standards. She hadn't even bothered to check if the man was dead and put him out of his misery if he wasn't. She found it worrying that she wasn't even bothered by her actions until Abathur mentioned it. "It was, actually. I convinced him to shoot his own comrades. Helped me get past them quicker."

"I see. Efficient." The words, though calm and placid as usual, almost sounded like an accusation.

"The living hybrid…I assume you've taken the necessary precautions?" Tiberias mentioned that it could 'eat souls'. She wasn't exactly in a hurry to find out if that was true.

"I have, my queen. We have learned from your case."

"My case?"

"Like nearly every other Terran that we have brought into the Swarm, you tried to resist us. You reached out psionically to anyone willing to listen and called many of our enemies to Char. Needless to say, I would rather not be put in such a situation again. Whatever entity created these things, I doubt it is in our best interest to be discovered by them. I have permanently suppressed the psionic abilities of the creature and restrained it physically. The hybrid can talk to us, but little else. It cannot harm anyone unless we allow it."

Kerrigan knew Abathur was good, but that was ridiculous. "This is the first intact, living hybrid you've seen. How did you figure out how its brain works in just five minutes?"

"Its mind is surprisingly simple in structure. It is the product of an engineer, not of natural evolution. As such, each region of its brain has a clearly defined role and has been optimized to perform a function and only that particular function. It makes physical manipulation of its mind very easy."

'Physical manipulation'? "You just cut out the 'psychic' part of its brain, didn't you?"

The creature looked…offended. "That…would be a crude way of stating it, my queen…"

"No sense beating around the bush, Abathur. I just want to know if that thing will jump up and try to eat me at some point." The old Zerg seemed to approve of her willingness to get to the point.

"It will certainly try, but I will monitor the creature closely to make sure that it never gets the opportunity. Experimenting with living, sentient specimens always carries a risk."

That it did, Kerrigan thought. During her own…infestation, she managed to call both the newly-founded Dominion and Raynor's Raiders to Char. The Protoss showed up, too, though she didn't know if they came because of her screaming or if they came there on their own accord. The Overmind made a big mistake not silencing her before half the sector was on their doorstep. Then again, this was the Overmind. Given how events unfolded four years ago and her role in his prophecy, it may have been part of his long-term plan all along. "Well, as long as it can't escape or tell anyone where we are, you can do whatever you have to. Find the magic bullet that can bring these things down."

"As you wish."

Abathur kept looking up to her. While Kerrigan wasn't very good at reading what passed for facial expressions on her chief geneticist, she knew when something was troubling one of her underlings. Probably came with being the leader of a telepathic collective. "Okay, spit it out. What's bothering you?"

The creature seemed to collect his thoughts before finally asking: "What did you hope to achieve here?"

An odd question, given that Kerrigan made sure everyone knew about Raynor's importance and the fact that he was last seen here. "My plan was to fetch Raynor and be gone before anyone noticed us. Didn't I brief you on that?"

"You misunderstand. What did you hope to achieve by leaving the ship and going to the surface, alone?"

Oh great, Kerrigan thought, her good mood rapidly turning sour. She was _not_ inclined to explain herself. "You're kidding, right? I expected a dressing down from Tai or Izsha, but you? What do you know about strategy anyway?"

"Little, my queen. It was not my intent to insinuate otherwise. I exist to understand, not to judge. However, even I know that your actions were reckless and dangerous. Please, satiate my curiosity." The queen's first thought was smacking him across the face for doubting her, but Abathur's tone didn't hint at accusation at all. He asked because he was genuinely curious.

Good enough for her. "Well, we couldn't get Raynor anymore, and I needed to blow off steam. It just felt like the right thing to do. Being psychic, I've learned to trust my gut. Since I hit the scientific mother lode, I'm sure you agree that it was the right call. Besides, it's not like there's anything down there that could kill me. I've been hunting my fellow man all my life and I believe you had to _scrape_ one of your 'subjects' off the walls. That, and I'm still your boss…"

"I understand the practicality of your actions, my queen, and I did not mean to challenge your authority. I merely feel that this is very unlike you. Before, when you allowed your emotions to guide your judgment, you at least attempted to justify your actions logically." Kerrigan quickly swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat. She could hardly deny it, after all. She hadn't come to rescue Raynor because he was needed for an alliance, she did it because she loved him. A love that was probably unbecoming of a queen in the eyes of most Zerg. "Do not feign ignorance. I am no fool. Your true intentions or your relationship with the human mean little to me, so long as they do not interfere with the needs of the Swarm. I still believe that such emotions will be the end of you, but you seem to be able to function regardless. The Swarm is recovering from the damage done after your predecessor's defeat and is rapidly gaining in strength. Ultimately, that is your purpose. One you have performed admirably thus far. My role is to give advice and make sure our performance stays that way."

At least he wasn't going to start a revolution…yet. "Well, thanks, I guess, but that's not really your problem, is it?"

"No, it is not. The confidence you have in your abilities is. I have seen such arrogance before, but not from you."

That lump in Kerrigan's throat just became bigger. Part of her already knew where this was going. "Explain."

"When Tiberias returned you to us, your personality had changed completely. This led me to believe that the Queen of Blades was a separate entity, one that the artifact crushed forever. My assumption was that the entity we call 'Queen of Blades' was a creation of the Overmind, a physical construct inside your mind, but separate from yourself. If it was, your old personality should have been restored when the Queen of Blades was destroyed, and we would not be having this conversation. Today's events leads me to suspect that my initial assessment may have been…premature."

No. No no no no no. The Queen of Blades was gone. She had to be gone, and Abathur was wrong. The thought of the Queen of Blades coming back, the thought of slowly turning into _her_…Kerrigan couldn't bear it. Just thinking about it made her want to throw up. Weakly, trying to mask her emotions the best she could, she stammered: "W-What makes you think…"

"The changes in your recent behavior has not gone unnoticed. _You_ do not kill to 'blow off steam'. _You_ do not use 'I'm still your boss' as an excuse to justify your recklessness. _You _approach the loss of life not with indifference, but as a necessary evil. While I do not necessarily disagree with your actions, they are very unlike you. Whether you wish to admit it or not, you have become more like your predecessor lately."

"I've been under a lot of stress…" It's a poor excuse, but still. Kerrigan did _not_ like being compared with the Queen of Blades in any way, shape, or form. Especially when the one making it has a point…

"That you have, but I do not believe that the burdens of command are solely responsible for this. What is, however, is uncertain. The human mind is complex and its intricacies cannot always be explained by genetic heritage alone. Studying your history, I have come to believe that the 'Queen of Blades' was always a part of you, a relic from you time working for the Confederacy. The Overmind merely turned it into something more powerful." Hearing the phrases 'Queen of Blades' and 'part of you' in the same sentence was just too much. She needed to do something, to change the subject, _anything_ to stop her from grabbing her blade and performing amateur brain surgery on herself.

"Y-You know my history?"

"The human brain is the result of millions of years of natural evolution. A product of random chance. Even after four years of research and countless subjects, I do not fully understand its workings. What I do know is that genetics is only part of the puzzle. To understand the rest, I had resorted to other source of information, your history included. It is my duty to guide and study the evolution of the Swarm, yourself included. I needed to know if you were a liability." The Zerg aren't known for their adherence to privacy, but the idea of Abathur doing a background check on her was rather creepy.

"Am I?"

"I do not know, my queen."

"You don't know? Well, that's just great. Good thing you aren't the queen around here. I, for one, _do_ think it's a problem, so fix it!"

Abathur lowered his head almost apologetically. "This is not a problem that can be fixed with my expertise. I cannot point to a specific set of neurons and claim that they responsible for your problems. Though it pains me to admit it, the full workings of the human mind are still beyond my understanding." Wrong answer. Just…wrong answer. You don't drop a bomb shell like this on someone and say that you can't do anything about it.

"And here I thought you had all the answers…" Kerrigan muttered bitterly.

"The first step on the road to wisdom and understanding is the realization that there are still things you do not know. It is a universal principal of science. No one is omniscient, not even me. If I claimed otherwise, I'd only delude myself."

"But the Zerg have been infesting humans for years. You'd think that we've figured out the human brain by now."

"As I mentioned, the human brain is complicated. Functional regions are not very well defined and vary greatly per individual. Assimilating humans is as much an art as it is a science. Their bodies adapt quite easily, but their minds do not. The probability that a Terran retains their sentience is small, even in the best of circumstances. Have you never wondered why there are so few infested Terrans, in spite of our skill with genetic engineering?" Point taken.

Kerrigan regained her composure. No weaknesses, not in front of other Zerg. "So…what am I supposed to do? I'm not going to just sit here and lose myself again. How do I get rid of this problem?"

"You are persistent. Good. Most Terrans surrendered themselves to their fate when placed in a similar situation. I cannot give you a direct answer, but I can give you advice. Zerg grow stronger by integrating the most powerful aspects of the life forms they encounter. I suggest you do the same."

"That…I don't understand…What's that even supposed to mean?" How was she supposed to 'integrate' a part of herself? Abathur said he could give a straight answer, but this.

"My apologies for being unclear, but psychology is not an exact science. You are in the unique position to decide your own fate. To chose who or what you will be. I suggest you make use of this opportunity, before your biology makes that choice for you."

"I… I'm sorry, this is all a bit of a shock. I need some time…Just…Thanks." With that, the queen disappeared into her chambers.

Izsha slithered into the room, staring at the queens chambers with a pained look on her face. "Thank you, Abathur. You may not see it, but you've helped her more than you know."

"Have I? She is a predator, Izsha. She has been for her whole existence. It is unlikely that she will ever be able to change, no matter how much any of us would wish it. I fear I have only delayed the inevitable."

"You've given her hope, even if it's just a little. Sometimes, that's enough."

"Has it been enough for you, _Amanda_?" Izsha shot him a murderous glare upon hearing that name, but the creature simply ignored it. "I did not lie to her about her condition. It will almost certainly worsen. Her chances are poor, at best, especially without the human to help her."

"We will have to make do without him, then. She cannot fight our enemies if she keeps fighting herself. Her inner demons will be dealt with, sooner or later, and I'm sure you agree that it would be best if she didn't turn into the Queen of Blades again. I know how much you hated her."

"I was right about her in the end, was I not? Her arrogance proved to be her downfall and she nearly dragged us all down with her."

"History could end up repeating itself if we do nothing."

"Needless to say, Izsha, I hate stagnation more. This 'psychology' of yours cannot drag on forever. We need her at her peak if we want to have any chance of survival, even if that means returning to the way things were. We risk much with this experiment of yours."

"She'll come around. For once, trust someone else's judgment. I will call her when we're out of the system. She'll probably want to talk to the Raiders about our next move."

Abathur grumbled as he returned to his lab. He preferred cold, hard facts, not politics and this pseudoscientific mess. Turning his attention to the captive hybrid, he went back to what he did best: unlocking the secrets hidden in the creature's genes. There was nothing he could do about the Queen's problem anyway.


	66. Chapter 66

**Bridge, White Star, Deep Space**

The losses were bad, to say the least. Before they left the Dylarian Shipyards, crewmen often joked that they would out-swarm the Swarm. As it turned out, it was the Zerg who got the last laugh. Williams knew that only half of the fleet survived, but the damage was much worse than that. The White Star had been lucky: it had managed to escape with only a few scratches. Many of the other ships weren't so fortunate. Some were literally falling apart before his eyes. Almost every ship needed some serious repair work if they were ever going to be battle-worthy again.

General Morrigan walked up to him, quietly ordering him to follow. The two arrived in a strangely familiar corridor. "You're going to punch me in the face, aren't you?"

The general calmly replied: "If I wanted to vent my frustrations on you, captain, your kneecaps would have known by now. I just got off the comms with the emperor. To say that he isn't pleased with the recent turn of events would be an understatement."

"We still have Raynor, don't we? I'm sure handing him over earn you some favor, for whatever good it might do…" When push would come to shove, Williams knew that the emperor's wrath would be nothing compared to what the Zerg could do.

"I didn't tell him about Raynor, captain, and I won't." Morrigan calmly explained. "Neither will any of us. As of about 10 minutes ago, the fact that we have the rebel in custody is on a strictly need-to-know basis. You and anyone else who knows about this will keep his mouth shut, understood?"

Williams was shocked. Withholding information to a superior, especially something as vital as that, is nothing short of treason. "I understand what 'need-to-know' means, I just don't understand why. The emperor will have your head if he finds out you've been hiding this from him."

"I know, which is exactly the reason why I need to sweep this under the rug. The emperor is just a mere human, as much as his propaganda machine like to portray otherwise. He has flaws, one of which being an obsession with a certain rebel commander you may have heard off. A rebel commander who might just be the only human alive that knows how to stop the Zerg."

"Then why are we keeping him?"

"If I hand him over to Mengsk, he'll be tried, tortured, and eventually killed. Raynor has been too much of a pain to the emperor for him to suffer anything less. If we're lucky, the emperor's goons will remember to torture some useful information out of him, not just things to incriminate him. If we're not, he'll die and we'll be up with our backs against the wall when the Zerg show up to finish us off. I can't take that chance. We'll interrogate him ourselves, extract whatever information we can, and _then_ hand him over. Of course, if word of his capture reaches the emperor's ears…"

"…we'll have to hand him over anyway. I get it. One problem, though: scuttlebutt has already made his rounds. I think it's safe to say that everyone on this ship has heard the rumor by now."

The general shook his head. "I was afraid that might happen. Unwelcome, but not unexpected. Still, we can't let word of his capture leave this ship, and that's where you come in."

The general's words seemed rather ominous. "Sir?"

"If the Swarm really was after Raynor, any ship or facility we hold him will become a Zerg magnet. We have to put him someplace where the Zerg won't be able to find him. I want to bring him aboard this ship, then have the ship make constant, random jumps throughout the sector, alone. That way, we should be able to get what we need before either the Swarm or the emperor catches wind of us."

"Sir, what you ask is suicide. We'd have a better chance surviving in a pen with hungry zerglings while drenched in barbeque sauce. The Zerg found their queen within days of her capture. They will find us eventually, and without back-up…"

"We'll be slaughtered, I know. There's safety in numbers, but given the state of our fleet, we'll be slaughtered even if we did bring back-up. Our best, hell, our only defense is secrecy, and a single ship is harder to catch than an entire fleet."

"Even so, the White Star can only carry so much fuel." The captain continued. "We'll still need to rendezvous with a supply ship every now and then. How do you want to do that?"

"Leave that to me." Morrigan replied, leaving a proper answer hanging. "Your job is to convince the crew to keep doing their jobs. We'll be running in complete radio silence whenever possible and I know it's bad for morale when the men aren't allowed to contact the homefront after a battle."

Great, Williams gets to play psychologist again. Psychologist on a doomed ship, too. "You'd make my job a lot easier if you at least let them send a message to their families. You know, just to let the parents know they're about to go on a suicide mission? I mean, I'm sure your family would like to say goodbye."

"I wouldn't know. The Zerg slaughtered everyone I ever cared for three years ago."

"That…explains much." The captain decided to quickly change the subject to avoid Morrigan's glare. "So I'm guessing shore leave is definitely out of the question."

"Absolutely."

"In that case, I'll tell the men the bad news. When are we leaving?"

"Green team arrived with Raynor a little while ago, and I ordered one of the supply ships to fill us up. I'd say around thirty minutes. I told the rest of the fleet that we'll be on a classified intelligence-gathering mission, so they won't complain if we disappear."

"And the emperor?"

"He thinks we're using the sensors array to try and find a weakness in the Swarm. Not even that far from the truth, now that I think about it. I told him everything, except for Raynor, of course. It'll be up to him to decide if he tells the public of our defeat."

"Very well. I'll tell the men, sir." The captain said, resentfully.

"Dismissed."

Deep in his heart, Williams knew that the general would get him killed one day. He'd just hoped it wasn't this soon. Now, onto the very delicate matter of telling an entire crew they've just been volunteered for a one-way trip…

**Behemoth, Deep Space**

The behemoth seemed to groan in pain, as if the very act of moving through space was agonizing. Kerrigan wasn't really surprised. From the outside, the creature looked like an angry god had beaten it with a hammer, but it looked even worse from the inside. Once enemy fire got through the armor, there was very little stopping it. Bulkheads were shattered, organs were ruptured, and entire sections were left inaccessible after filling up with blood and viscera. That was just the damage that the enemy managed to do.

The recoil on the guns had proven to be much higher than expected. Strong enough to be every bit as destructive as the enemy. Between the hemorrhaging, broken bones, and God knows what else, the behemoth had no business being alive, let alone be fit enough for a warp jump. It was a testament to the near-indestructibility of Zerg physiology that the damn thing was still moving around.

After nearly an hour of detours and climbing, Kerrigan arrived at the space used as a bridge. Tiberias and Me'dea were sitting around a holographic table, probably trying to figure out what they did wrong and how to improve. Ever evolving, like the good little Zerg that they were. The queen briefly wondered how they managed to get the table working anyway, but decided not to ask. She had enough on her mind already.

"All right, report." She said, causing Tiberias to tense up. If Kerrigan didn't know better, she'd think he was afraid of a young woman two-thirds his size. Then again, that same woman just reduced a cosmic horror to a pile of gore and has a rather unsettling history, so maybe his fears weren't entirely baseless. "You can relax, I'm not going to kill you. Just tell me what happened."

Cain seemed to loosen up again, falling back into his ridiculously undersized command chair. Another advantage of being part of a hive mind: individuals can easily tell if they're being truthful with one another. "When you arrived at Dead Man's Rock, a combined Dominion/Protoss fleet showed up soon after. Considering how quickly they got here, I'd say they were waiting for us, using the Raiders as bait. When we moved in to support, the fleet turned their attention towards us and opened fire. Things got…ugly afterwards."

"How ugly?"

Tai sighed. "You've seen what's left of the behemoth. Two leviathans, excluding yours, are still mostly intact, another can be salvaged. The others are lost. As for the smaller flyers, we still have a few hundred left, but those we can easily replace." He said, guiltily. Whether he genuinely cared for the death of so many Zerg under his command, or felt bad because he broke his queen's tools, she couldn't tell.

"You managed to push them back, right?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Did you shoot first?" Kerrigan immediately interjected.

"No, you told us…"

"So, you followed my orders to the best of your ability. I know you did everything you could. Stop acting like I'm going to drop you in a lava pit. It's getting really annoying."

Cain still didn't relax. "That's not really the problem, my lady. The thing is, we shouldn't have won this fight. The enemy had us outnumbered and were commanded by people who, unlike yours truly, actually knew what they were doing. If the Protoss hadn't retreated…"

"Wait, back up!" The queen exclaimed. "What do you mean, the Protoss retreated? Last time I checked, Protoss don't retreat, no matter what. _Especially_ when they're winning. Why would they run for it?"

"I was hoping you'd know. Or Raynor. He'll probably know."

"Well, Raynor isn't here. Some jackass took him before we could." A fact she didn't want to be reminded of. "We'll have to figure this one out ourselves. So, the Protoss; how do our ships stand up to theirs?"

"Believe it or not, we're doing a lot better than we used to, which makes it all the stranger that they threw in the towel. I mean, this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of us. After all, they had our leader, along with most of the Swarm, in an extremely vulnerable position. Had they held their ground…"

…The Zerg could have been defeated. On reflection, Kerrigan realized that this whole mission was a massive error in her judgment. She really thought that she could have gotten away with it. She let her emotions and her desire to rescue Jim get the better of her, and it nearly cost them everything. On top of that, these unlucky bastards seemed to be blaming themselves for her mistake. Abathur was right to doubt her. "Tai, I'm sorry."

The infested Terran looked at her, seemingly surprised. "About what?"

"I should have seen this coming. The Dominion must have known what Raynor meant to me and prepared accordingly. I'm sorry I put you in this position." She noticed that Cain kept staring at her, curiously. "What? Did the Queen of Blades never screw up?"

"Of course she did, occasionally, but she never apologized for it, or even admit it for that matter."

"Even when she was wrong?"

"_Especially _when she was wrong. Pointing it out wasn't a very good idea, if you know what I mean…" Cain shuddered, remembering some of his more unpleasant conversations with Kerrigan's former self. "Besides, there's no way you could have known about the Protoss, unless you happen to have a crystal ball hidden away somewhere. If it had just been the Dominion, we wouldn't have had anything to worry about. Their lasers are crap anyway. They wouldn't have gotten through our armor in time even if they had mustered every ship in the sector. Trust me, you aren't responsible for any of this."

"Somehow, I wonder if everyone else sees it that way." The queen wondered. Justified or not, the Zerg just destroyed a huge Dominion fleet. The Raiders, and Raynor in particular, probably wouldn't be impressed by this turn of events. Not to mention the political backlash: unless Mengsk's propaganda machine covered this whole mess up, things could get very, very ugly. Even if they didn't, every asset that her Swarm and the Dominion lost fighting each other was an asset that couldn't be used fighting the hybrids. Losses could come back to haunt her later.

Picking up on Kerrigan's train of thought, he said: "Oh, to hell with the humans! If they have a problem with the way things turned out, they can go space themselves! The Raiders were supposed to talk the Protoss down, and they didn't. That Valerian person was supposed to make sure the Dominion stopped hunting us, and he hasn't. To top it off, I had to give up the element of surprise just to allow those bastards a chance to retreat. We could have sniped them from halfway across the system, but we didn't, because I was supposed to be nice to them, even though we knew they were out for our blood. How many Zerg would still be around now if I hadn't given up that advantage? Trust me, with friends like that, we don't even need enemies anymore. Love's still a two-way street, you know, and I haven't seen them showing us much lately. We probably won't be able to call them until we get back to Marrakesh, but when we do…"

"You'll try to play nice." Kerrigan said, cutting him off. "I know you don't like humans much, but try to keep that to yourself as much as you can. I'd rather not piss off the only allies we have left." Tai's sentiment wasn't entirely unexpected. He seemed to dislike the humans almost as much as the humans disliked him. Of all the human things the Zerg took from him, why didn't they take the ability to hold a grudge?

"Please, I'm a professional."

"If you say so…" Yep, he's going to be a problem.


	67. Chapter 67

**Brig, White Star, Deep Space**

Jim Raynor, commander of the Raiders and hero of the people, was pacing through his little eight-by-eight cell in the brig of a Dominion starship. Not the end he had hoped for, but he knew a speedy execution was inevitable if he was ever captured. Assuming, of course, that the Dominion would give him the courtesy of a quick death. Knowing Arcturus, however, that probably wasn't going to happen. Not after his little stunt on Korhal anyway.

The cell was a little strange, though. The room was thoroughly sterilized and sealed from the outside world. The only way to get anything into the cell, even food or drink, was through a series of airlocks. Raynor wondered whether these measures were to keep something out, or in. He wasn't sick, as far as he knew anyway, so why bother putting him in a room like this? He wasn't some alien specimen that needed to be handled with care. Maybe they were worried about him being infested? Still, wouldn't a quick scan have cleared him? He was clean on the last check-up back on the Hyperion and hadn't encountered any Zerg since then. Of course, if the guy in charge was as crazy as that bastard that stranded them on Dead Man's Rock in the first place, a scan alone probably wasn't enough.

With nothing better to do, Raynor tried to think of a way to escape on his own. He was alone, and didn't know where his crew was, or if they were even alive. The room he was in was made of metal except for the airlock. The airlock looked like it was made of some sort of glass. He could probably force his way through it, but that would leave him with another problem: the two marines standing guard. Getting past them undetected would be impossible and since the Dominion took his weapons and his suit, trying to attack them would end very badly. In conclusion: escape would probably result in him getting himself shot to pieces.

Raynor's concentration was broken by the sound of the door. Two figures entered: a man in a ghost uniform (presumably the same guy who captured him, judging by the suit), and another in a general's dress uniform.

"I'm guessing you're the man in charge." The commander said to the Dominion officer.

"That is correct." His tone was calm, almost unnaturally so. Either he was a masterful actor trying to scare the commander into submission or a resoc.

"And now you're going to torture information out of me…"

The officer smiled. "If you think that, you're a lot more stupid than I've given you credit for. You've been running for four years. Torture has never been a reliable way of getting information and by now you've probably figured out a way to resist torture, so I won't waste my time. No, you and I are simply going to have a chat, and I'll let my telepathic friend here tell me if you're lying or not."

Wonderful. Raynor hated having people read his mind. "Fair enough. So, you have me at a disadvantage, Mr…"

"_General_ Morrigan." The officer corrected.

Yes, that name was familiar. "I see. I thought Warfield's pet lunatic was behind this. Looks like I was right."

"Sanity is relative, commander."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Raynor just had the strangest sense of déjà vu.

"Nothing, really. Just something an old friend of mine used to say…"

"Right. Well, then, _General_, what do you want to chat about?"

"My favorite topic, actually: Zerg. More specifically, how to stop them." There was something cheery in the general's tone. Something incredibly infuriating. It almost sounded like he treated this like it was some sort of game. Whether he really thought it was, or was simply trying to get under Raynor's skin to loosen his tongue, the rebel couldn't tell.

"What makes you think I can help? What makes you think I even _want_ to help?"

"Because you're one of the only humans who've been in contact with them recently and lived to tell the tale. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if you had a direct line to them right now."

Raynor laughed. This man actually thought he was infested. "You honestly think I'm one of them? Seriously, general? Didn't you scan me on the way in? Is this some sort of sick joke or are you just that paranoid?"

"Let me show you one of the reports that crossed my desk." Morrigan looked at his datapad, pressing a few buttons before showing it to Raynor. On it was a picture of a quite attractive young woman. "See this girl? Her name was Starry Lace, probably a stage name. She used to be a lounge singer on some backwater called Meteor Station. The girl seduced several high ranking Dominion and Morian officials, all of whom mysteriously died shortly after meeting her. It took us a few months, but eventually we put two and two together and figured out who was behind it all. We were convinced she was an Umojan spy, but the autopsy proved otherwise. The coroner dug a Zerg parasite out of her brain. As it turned out, she had been under their control for months. To make matters worse, she had gone to the hospital several times during that period and not once did the medical scanners manage to detect it. So maybe I am paranoid. Or maybe I'm not taking any chances when Zerg are part of the equation." That would explain some things. It's hardly paranoia if the threat is real…

"When did this happen?"

"About a year ago."

A year ago. Back when the Queen of Blades was still around. Back when things were very, very different. The probability that Raynor had a parasite like that in his brain was one step short of zero, but he doubted that Morrigan would ever believe him. "So that's why I'm locked up here. Instead of just a regular cell. You think I'm contagious, too?"

"I can't take that chance. Now, what I really want to know is what you are to the Queen of Blades."

"The Queen of Blades is…"

"…dead? I've heard that one before. Do you really expect me to believe that?" The general interrupted. "Just because you blasted her with that artifact, doesn't mean that she's been magically turned into a saint."

If he wanted evidence, Raynor could oblige. After all, actions speak louder than words. "You're right, it doesn't. But tell me, has the Zerg Swarm attacked you? Has Kerrigan invaded Korhal yet? Because we both know what the Queen of Blades would have done."

For the first time, Morrigan seemed to frown. "She hasn't…yet. But we both know that she'll hit us when she thinks the Zerg are strong enough. That can be tomorrow, that can be in a decade. The thing is, it _will_ happen eventually. We are all living on borrowed time, and as much as I hate to admit it, I need your help. I need to know everything I can about them if we have a chance to stop them. If the Zerg left you with any shred of your humanity, help me stop them." This 'guilty until proven innocent' mindset was becoming annoying. Especially from someone who knows very little about the Zerg as they are now.

"General, I think there's a lot about the Zerg you don't understand. Kerrigan doesn't want to destroy the Dominion. She way want your emperor's head, nothing more. Last time I saw her, I managed to stop her from going on a rampage. Since you're not showing me pictures of burning cities, I'm gonna go on a limb here and say that it worked. Right now, unless your last name is Mengsk, she ain't a danger to you anymore."

"Then explain _this_!" Morrigan showed Raynor his datapad again, this time with with a list of names on it. A casualty report. A very long casualty report.

"What…when…"

"Dead Man's Rock. The battle was still going on when we picked you up. The Zerg arrived there in force, and we don't know why. My fleet moved in to stop them, and we were shot to pieces. So, by all means, tell me again how the Zerg are no longer a threat."

The list…it was dozens of ships long. Each of them could have had a crew of thousands. Kerrigan took a lot of lives there. It was undeniable. Still, there was something Morrigan wasn't telling him. "Who shot first?"

"Why do you…"

"Who. Shot. First." Raynor asked firmly. "Your side, or theirs?"

"It doesn't matter. She's…"

"One is self-defense, the other is murder. One makes you a soldier, the other a butcher. So yes, it does matter, General. It matters if the Zerg actively hunted you down or only fought back because you forced them too. You know what, I think I already know the answer: you shot first. They were probably here to rescue me and my crew, but you decided to force their hand. How do I know this? I've spend a good part of my life running from the law. Just because I ain't a telepath doesn't mean I don't know what you're thinking and _you_ are a very easy man to figure out. You want to destroy the Zerg, no matter the cost. You tried meeting them head-on and are now turning to dear little me after that failed miserably."

"You are right," Morrigan replied icily. "I do want to destroy them. At some point, so did you. Didn't you want to avenge your friend Fenix? Don't you want justice for everyone she has killed?"

The mention of his old Protoss brother-in-arms nearly sent Raynor into a fit of rage. He thankfully managed to calm himself before he unwittingly played exactly in Morrigan's hands. The bastard certainly did his homework. "Fenix…has already been avenged. When we fired that artifact a few weeks ago, we killed the Queen of Blades and put every last soul she took to rest. The woman you're hunting right now is as much to blame for the Zerg's actions as you are. And don't you _dare_ lecture me about justice! If you want to find a criminal, just look at the guy you're working for."

"I'm not trying to destroy the Swarm just because Mengsk told me so, Raynor. I want to destroy them because humanity will never be safe as long as a single Zerg still draws breath. They are, without a doubt, the greatest threat our species has ever faced…"

"I can think of a bigger one." Raynor interrupted.

"I'm sure you can. What I want to know is: what did the Queen do to you to make you so loyal to her? Why are you believing a single word she says, even though she has a history of betrayal?"

"I know my girl, General. It's her, no doubt about it."

"Right, you love her. Of course. You know who also loved her? A crime lord named Ethan Steward. Apparently, your 'girl' loved him back so much she infested him before leaving him to die on some rock in the ass end of nowhere."

"And when was that? One year ago? Two years? Again, Kerrigan didn't do that. How often do I have to say this: the Queen of Blades is dead. Gone. Forever. All that's left is a woman that has been scorned, and you what they say about those." This was getting tiresome. "Look, you want my advice on stopping the Zerg threat? Stop hunting her. She won't attack you, if you don't attack her. It's as simple as that. Pull back to your worlds and stop wasting ships on the Zerg. You have bigger things to worry about."

"What could possibly be worse than a race of world-devouring space locusts led by a psychic madwoman whose main motivation is bloody vengeance?"

"How about Protoss/Zerg hybrids?"

Morrigan laughed. The thought alone was ridiculous. Creating a Protoss/Zerg hybrid should be biologically impossible. It would be just as ridiculous as hybridizing a human and a spider. After a minute, the general pulled himself back together and turned to the ghost asking him whether or not the rebel was lying. To Morrigan's surprise, he wasn't. Raynor was being dead serious. "So…Protoss/Zerg hybrids. How's that even possible?"

"Don't ask me about the science. I just know that it's possible. You do believe me, or am I wasting my breath?"

"You're not a particularly capable psychic, so I doubt you'd be able to fool my ghost. I believe that you believe it, but that doesn't make it true. If you have any evidence…"

"I ran through half of Deadman's Port trying to escape from these bloody things. If you're lucky, you still might be able to find a few of their corpses in the tunnels."

"In case you weren't listening, there's a massive Zerg army around Dead Man's Rock and we can't be sure if they've left already. I'd rather not go there if I can avoid it. At least not anytime soon. No offense, but I can't consider you very trustworthy right about now. Not enough to risk jumping right into the Zerg fleet. Besides, you still haven't told me who or what created these things in the first place."

"You did, general."

Morrigan paused briefly. "Explain."

"The Moebius Foundation made them." Raynor elaborated. "Or at least some of them, I'm not sure. There's a station in the Castanar system labeled as a beryllium mine. Except it isn't. My men and I raided it and it turned out to be a research facility where they were breeding those things." Much to Raynor's annoyance, the general glanced back at the ghost. The operative's answer was still the same. "Look, if you don't believe me, ask the emperor. Assuming he doesn't take your job and have you executed when you mention it, of course."

"If the emperor was working on a secret project to create those things, I don't see why there's anything to worry about. At least for the Dominion. I could always use more firepower against the Swarm." The general shrugged.

Raynor sighed. "Because the emperor can't control them. The technology needed to make those things…well, let's just say we humans don't have it ourselves. Neither do the Zerg or the Protoss. The Dominion is getting help, but I don't know from whom, and I don't think the emperor fully knows either. I came to Dead Man's Rock, looking for a lead, trying to find out who it was, but it turned out to be a dead end. Literally." Of course, this wasn't entirely true. Raynor knew that this Fallen One was the entity pulling everyone's strings, but it would be almost impossible to prove. Even mentioning it now would probably cause the general to declare him insane. Hopefully, Morrigan would figure it out by himself or get his hands on that crystal, wherever it is.

"I see. I will take your advice into consideration."

As the general turned around, Raynor called him back. "Hey, I gave you some info, now you give me some back. What happened to my crew?"

"Hmm, well that's only fair, I guess. The emperor doesn't know I have you in custody…yet. They're safe. They'll stay that way if you're telling the truth."

"Good. Then I have nothing to worry about. Well, apart from what Kerrigan will do to this ship when she finds out I'm here…"

Morrigan sneered before leaving. Raynor didn't really know what to make of him. He seemed somewhat reasonable, but the rebel knew single-mindedness when he saw it. Would he be willing or capable of working with the Zerg when the need arose? Did he even believe a word Raynor said? Then, of course, there was Kerrigan. The last time they talked, she was terrified that she might lose herself at some point. How much of her old self was really left by now? If she's willing to invade a planet, even one full of mercs and criminals, just to rescue him…


	68. Chapter 68

**Behemoth, Marrakesh System**

It took them a while, but they finally got it working. Using a few salvaged cameras, the holographic table, and a little of Izsha's special brand of magic, the Zerg managed to put together a holographic communicator, just like the ones the Terrans liked to use. Exactly how it worked, Kerrigan didn't care. She didn't need another headache. Right now, results were more important.

When they arrived at Marrakesh, the queen wanted to contact Valerian and the Raiders as soon as possible. They probably already heard about what had happened at Dead Man's Rock, either from spies in the Dominion, or from the evening news. It would only be fair if she got to tell her side of the story. Spies were rarely able to give the complete picture, and Dominion propaganda wasn't exactly a trustworthy source of information.

After a few minutes of sending, decoding and Tiberias furiously pounding the table with his fist, the images of Valerian Mengsk, Captain Horner, and General Warfield appeared. Not surprisingly, none of them seemed particularly thrilled to meet her.

"You've caused quite a mess back there." Warfield said, accusingly. "Was it worth it?" The cold look in the general's eyes sent shivers of the queen's spine.

"Raynor was already gone. Someone took him, but I don't know who or where." Kerrigan explained. "We also ran into hybrids, and quite a lot of them. They managed to take over some of the mercenary gangs on the planet. Most of them teleported away, but we managed to take out a few of them and even capture one alive. Hopefully, we can use them to find a weakness."

Silence followed. A very uncomfortable silence, that was quickly broken by Warfield's booming voice. "That's it? That's all you have to say for yourself after massacring HALF OUR FLEET!"

"They didn't give us much of a choice, general." The queen answered, trying to remain calm. "The Protoss were with them, and they opened fire as soon as they were in range. If we didn't shoot back, I wouldn't be standing here." The more rational part of Kerrigan's mind understood that the general would be upset at the loss of so many ships and the people on them, but the rest couldn't help but feel annoyed. War is war, and casualties are inevitable. Surely a general, of all people, would understand that?

"You could have retreated! You could have negotiated! You could have done something that didn't involve butchering hundreds of good men and women!"

"What would that be? If I ran, we would have lost Raynor for sure and the hybrids would have disappeared. Negotiation isn't possible if the enemy thinks you're out for their blood. I'm not a magician, Warfield. There are some things even I can't prevent."

"Did you even try? Do you even care? After all, what's a few thousand lives when you've murdered billions in the name of your little vendetta?"

That…that was a shot below the belt. The Zerg did try to solve this peacefully, and it failed because the blasted humans wouldn't stop shooting them. But before Kerrigan could chew the general's face off, Tiberias beat her to it. "You know what, General, why should we care? Do you think they care about us? Had this gone south, do you think that Mengsk will arrange a funeral for poor little Tiberias who died bravely defending his queen? Of course they won't! They'll cut of my head, stick it on a pike, and parade it through the streets of Korhal before slapping a bunch of medals on their chests and getting back to strip-mining planets and oppressing each other. So, for the love of god, don't pretend to be holy. We did everything we could and if you don't believe me, I'll send you everything we recorded from that fight. Try looking at some of the facts before accusing us off…"

"ENGOUGH, all of you!" Valerian yelled, silencing the others. "Miss Kerrigan," he said, looking the queen right in the eye, "when we asked you to avoid contact with the Dominion, we didn't ask for sentimental reasons. We asked you because we can't afford a war between our two species. Not with these hybrids knocking at our door." Turning to the general, he continued: "General Warfield, you know as well as I that a confrontation was bound to happen eventually. My father will not rest until he has her head on a silver platter. Sooner or later, the Dominion fleet would have caught up with her. As much as I hate to admit it, the losses from Dead Man's Rock will mean that the Dominion will not have the capacity to wage war against the Zerg any time soon. Those lives bought us time, and we won't be able to make the most of it unless we stop yelling at each other and work together."

Once again, it was quiet. Kerrigan couldn't help but admire the crown prince's little speech. Sure, the boy wasn't nearly as good an orator as his father, but he was good enough to get the message across. Managing to shut up the ruler of the Swarm and a high-ranking general was no mean feat. The queen didn't know he had it in him.

After a while, she asked: "Just how bad were the losses…"

"We're still working on a precise number, but it's not as bad as it could have been." Valerian answered. "The Raiders and I haven't been sitting still all this time. The Dominion is slowly falling apart and we have been trying to catch pieces of it before they shatter on the ground. When the emperor called for all available ships to be mustered, we convinced some of the governors and generals to ignore his summons. Most of them didn't listen, but even they have only sent the bare minimum. They think that civil war is inevitable and want to hold onto as many vessels as possible, just in case."

"That _wasn't_ the entire Dominion fleet?"

"No, only most of it." Horner explained. "Everyone's getting nervous, especially the people close to Mengsk. The emperor's popularity is worse than ever and the local commanders are trying to hold onto their assets for as long as you can. As long as we can keep the public attention on civil unrest and away from you, we'll probably be fine."

"I just cost Mengsk a fleet. Dead Man's Rock probably be all over the evening news."

Valerian smiled. "Actually, it hasn't. My father may be a megalomaniac, but he isn't stupid. If the people find out that their emperor and his pet maniac of a general couldn't stop the Zerg, they'll turn to the people who can. By now, news of our victory at Char has become common knowledge. I'm not sure how, UNN didn't report it, but it apparently has. Probably the Umojans. In any case, if my father tells anyone about it, the people will put us in charge and he'll become irrelevant."

"And all those ships? Someone is going to wonder where they all went?"

"That whole mission was classified. You don't need to worry about people finding out. I'll take care of it. You don't get to be crown prince without learning how to manipulate people." Valerian said. He was really coming into his own, although Kerrigan wasn't sure if he was entirely happy with it. Nevertheless, his talents were a resource the Zerg desperately needed. The Queen of Blades never really bothered with PR, so they had a lot of catching up to do. "That said, there is something I need your help with. Mar Sara was one of the first planets to be invaded by the Zerg. Like almost every other colony, the hives there lost all sense of direction when we fired the artifact. The Dominion sent a clean-up operation, but they're having trouble getting rid of the Zerg. Apparently, something, or someone is controlling them again."

Kerrigan mentally screened her broods, trying to find the one responsible. When she came up empty, she said: "It wasn't me, Valerian. We haven't been to Mar Sara since…well, a lifetime ago…"

"I figured as much. If you had, you'd would have taken the Zerg and left. Now, I'm asking you to do just that. We could move in and take them out with the artifact, but I'm sure you can make better use of them."

"How thoughtful of you… Thanks, I'll go there as soon as I can. In the mean time, can you please look out for Jim? If the Dominion has him…"

"I'll do what I can to find him, Miss Kerrigan." And with that, he cut the line.

"Well, that went better than expected…" Tiberias muttered.

"Lecturing them wasn't necessary, Tai." Kerrigan said in a disappointed tone. "If you don't have something nice to say, it's probably better to shut up altogether."

"If we're children and the only thing at stake is our petty feelings, then yes, you're right. This is different. They needed to hear it, whether they liked it or not."

"Given our body counts, I don't think either of us is in any place to judge them."

Cain seemed almost insulted by the insinuation. "How many people have they killed over the years? If we don't judge them, who will? Nobody is innocent, not in this universe. We just have the courtesy of being upfront about it."

"They're good people. Better than most. Certainly better than us."

"If that's so, they're working to save the wrong species. Humanity didn't get here because folks back on Earth thought the Koprulu Sector had adorable space bunnies that needed cuddling. Most of them aren't exactly altruistic by nature."

"But _they_ are. _They_ aren't hypocrites, just like you aren't a bloodthirsty monster…most of the time. Assuming that they are is just stupid, and you know that." Kerrigan never really thought of her underling as irrationally prejudiced. Sure, he disliked humans because most of them shot him on sight, but the Raiders hadn't. Why would he say this, now? "What's really bothering you?" She asked, softly.

Tai stared ahead for a minute before answering: "Is it wrong for me to long for the bad old days? Back when humans were just the enemy and things were nice and simple? All this has gotten me thinking about things and for guys like me, that's a really bad idea. I mean, sure, we were all enslaved slaves to a psychotic madwoman, but still…"

"No, I guess it isn't." After all, all Kerrigan really wanted was to set the clock back four years. Back when she was still a rebel fighting for justice and the heart of a ruggedly handsome commander. "Just don't let your nostalgia interfere with your job. Now, I want you to take inventory. We need to set course for Mar Sara as soon as possible."

"As you wish, my lady."

**Bridge, Hyperion, Deep Space**

"This was a mistake…" Warfield muttered after a few minutes of silence.

"We all have blood on our hands, General." Valerian replied mournfully over the comms. "Something like this was going to happen sooner or later."

"Yes, we have, but we don't invade planets for the sake of our boyfriends. How far do you think she's willing to go to get Raynor back? How far you think Mengsk will go to make sure that doesn't happen? What will be left of the sector once those two are done with this damn blood feud?"

Silence followed. Everyone knew the answer already, but no one wanted to say it.

"This isn't her fault, not completely." The crown prince said. "We haven't been pushing our advantage. I put your people in jail. My father managed to find enough ships to launch an assault because we failed to stop him. We all share blame in allowing this tragedy to happen."

"That's not what bothers me, kid. I knew Mengsk would catch up with her somehow and that blood would be spilled when he did. What bothers me is that she doesn't seem to give a damn about killing her own kind anymore."

"We're not her kind, general." Horner interjected.

"Excuse me?"

"_We_ are not her kind. The scaly fellow who accused you of hypocrisy, that's her kind. Not us. Not anymore." The captain sighed, finally managing to put a finger on something that had been bothering him for a long time. "After Char, after she sprung us from that prison, there was something wrong with Raynor. He had this look on his face, as if there was something missing on his check list, like he knew the victory would turn out to be hollow in the long run. Reminded me of Antiga…"

"In what way?" Valerian asked?

"When we started using psi-emitters and recruited General Duke to our cause, he started getting suspicious. I think that's when he began to wonder whether or not Mengsk was really the saint we thought him to be."

"And when he met Kerrigan again, he realized she wasn't the same anymore. Probably didn't tell us because he knew we needed to trust her. If we questioned her every move, we'll end up pushing her away and lose our trump card against the hybrids. Damn war…" The general sighed. "I should have seen this coming. You can't have powers like she does and still see the world the way we mortals do."

"Regardless, this changes nothing. We still need her help, prophecy or no. In the mean time, I suggest you two continue with what we've been doing: destabilize the Dominion and make sure my father doesn't do anything that dooms us all. I'll ask some of my contacts if can find our illustrious leader." Valerian ordered, much to the general's amusement.

"Your newfound courage may help you win over Miss Lockwell, but it won't be enough. As much as I admire it, we need to think about the future too. What happens when the emperor is defeated? Can't help but wonder when she'll turn on us again."

"Maybe, maybe not, but I have a ghost in our medbay that might disagree with you. My operative unwillingly tried to kill her and Kerrigan let her go with nothing more than a concussion and some damage to her implants. In a few days, she'll be up and running again, healthy as before. If she's really evil, that ghost would be dead. We should give her a little credit. Give Kerrigan another chance. She might end up surprising you."

"Alright, kid, I'll shut up for now." Warflied grumbled. "But I'm keeping my eye on her. I'll be in the mess hall, looking at the footage they sent over."

"I wouldn't have it any other way, General."


	69. Chapter 69

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

Home Sweet Home. Or at least as close to a home as Kerrigan could ask these days. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. The place was more or less safe and the creep was soft enough to act as a decent bed. Being a Zerg, she didn't need to sleep, of course, so the queen needed to find something else to pass the time while the Zerg 'fleet' was being 'repaired'. New broodmothers had arrived, apparently wanting to pledge their loyalty to her. It was nice to hear that at least some of them didn't need to be reminded who was queen by force. Still, it didn't take long before the newcomers had been delegated. Kerrigan's mind quickly began to wander again.

The Raiders. The only ones she could call her allies. How long would that last? The general had made his feelings abundantly clear. Understandable, since he probably knew at least some of the people who died there personally. He may have been a bit out of line, but he made the Terrans' sentiment towards her crystal clear: the Zerg would be their allies only for as long as the humans needed them. They needed meat for the grinder when the hybrids would come and turned to the only ones who could deliver on such a short notice. Warfield wasn't alone in his opinion. While Horner and Valerian did their best to remain neutral, it was clear to Kerrigan that they had their own doubts about their alliance. She wondered if they would have been as judgmental if she had brought a human army with her instead of the Zerg Swarm. From what she had learned about the Raiders' activities the past few years, they didn't seem to have issues with hiring mercs. Even those that were nearly ruthless and destructive as the Zerg were.

Truth be told, the future of the Human/Zerg alliance looked bleak at best. Even if they managed to defeat the hybrids, long term co-existence was unlikely: there was just too much bad blood between the two species. Exile seemed like the best long-term option, or at least the only option that allowed both species to survive. The idea that she should everything and everyone behind, however, was difficult to swallow. The thought of leaving Jim, more so. If she had to leave, there was no way they could ever be together: the Zerg needed a leader and Raynor would probably be too important to the post-war reconstruction to follow her. If running away is the only option, she'd be alone with the Zerg. Again…

Well, alone…It's hard to be alone when you have a million simultaneous voices chanting in your head. As much as she hated to admit it, the Zerg were growing on her. She began to care for them, in a way, just like she did for the Sons of Korhal. Before she was betrayed, of course. The bond she shared with them was…odd. Because she had lost her parents when she was very young and was never really allowed to socialize with anyone in the Ghost Program, Kerrigan never had a family, at least not since her childhood. To her, the Zerg were practically becoming her family: the smart cousin who knew everything, the annoying little brother with a fetish for blowing things up, the crazy uncle that hid in his strangely-smelling garage all day… They were her messed-up little family. They may be creepy, destructive bug-monsters, but they were _her_ creepy, destructive bug-monsters.

Oh, and she couldn't forget the grumpy neighbor who hated everyone and was now standing in her sunlight.

"Lassara."

"Kerrigan." The Protoss replied, coldly. Apparently her guest still didn't approve of her hospitality. "I presume your attempts to rescue James Raynor have been unsuccessful…"

Great, she knew. Worse still, she probably wanted to talk about it. The last thing Kerrigan needed now is to be reminded of her failure. "I talked to Za'gara about the phrase 'need to know'. Maybe I should try hitting her to get the point across."

"I did not have to ask. It was obvious. Had you found him, you would not be lying here alone. In all likelihood, you two would have isolated yourselves to perform whatever passes for mating rituals amongst your kind."

Leave it up to a Protoss to make love sound like a scientific experiment. "Has anyone ever told you you're a lousy romantic?"

"I have more pressing matters to attend to than my own personal pleasures. Escaping your clutches would be a good example."

"Since you're still here, I'm guessing your escape attempts haven't gone very well. How many of my Zerg have died laughing when your little endeavors inevitably went sideways?"

"Three." Lassara answered in a completely flat tone. Kerrigan wondered if she was kidding. She didn't know what was harder to believe: that Zerg can actually die of laughter or that Protoss were capable of sarcasm. "A number that will surely increase as time passes. What do you want from us, oh Queen of Blades? We have no information that you do not possess already and you have not experimented on my people. If you do not wish to kill us, what will become of us?"

A good question. One Kerrigan didn't have an answer for. What _did_ she want from them? They weren't any use to her or the rest of the Swarm, but killing them… "I'm not sure yet. I don't want to kill you, but…"

"Why?" The Protoss interrupted. "Why do you want us to live?"

"I'd say it's because killing is wrong and I'm a nice person, but you wouldn't believe me anyway. As I was saying, I don't want to kill you, but I can't exactly let you go."

"Why not? Placing us next to a distress beacon somewhere near Protoss space is well within your abilities."

"Well, yes, but if I do that, the first thing you'll do is tell the other Protoss exactly where I live. I'd prefer it if you didn't."

"You fear their retribution?"

"If the Protoss find out where I am, they'll attack. In case you haven't noticed, this place is a fortress. Maybe they'll win, maybe they won't, but in any case, a conflict between our species will leave us both crippled when the real threat shows up."

"Ah yes, the 'real' threat. Your Zerg have mentioned it before. I cannot help but wonder if this is some sort of ploy to convince the others to leave you alone while you gather your strength." That's it, Za'gara is a dead woman…thing…whatever. The Protoss shouldn't have been told about the hybrids. They'd only assume it was a trick, just like Lassara was doing now.

On a second thought, Kerrigan finally had proof. A way to convince the Protoss that she was telling the truth, at least about the hybrids. "Follow me."

The queen ran back to the leviathan with Lassara close behind her. Eventually they arrived at Abathur's 'lab', which had been converted into a make-shift prison cell for the Swarm's newest guest. A guest that, like the Protoss, did not approve of Zerg hospitality.

"The ARROGANCE. That you think YOU can comprehend me!" A powerful, hate-filled voice bellowed. Even with all the restraints and jammers, Kerrigan could easily hear it speak. It did talk rather funny, though. She wondered if they always did that, or if the psychic and physical chains had damaged its mind.

"It is only arrogance if the faith you put in your abilities is unfounded." Abathur replied, seemingly annoyed. "You are a DNA-based life-form and I can comprehend DNA. Do not delude yourself by thinking your genetic material is somehow superior to mine. It is unbecoming. My queen, I apologize. I have only just started my experimentation on this subject. I will require more time before I before I have anything useful."

Kerrigan turned to the Protoss, whose eyes were transfixed on the abomination in front of her. "You wanted proof, Lassara, here it is: a genuine, bona-fide Protoss/Zerg hybrid."

Lassara said nothing in response, but her expression spoke volumes. Terror, it screamed. Pure, primal fear for something that should not exist, but stood in front of her anyway. Something that could end her with a stray thought. Her face turned a color that Kerrigan didn't even think were possible. If she were human, she would almost certainly be voiding her bowels.

"THIS one knows her PLACE." The hybrid said to the Protoss, malice dripping from every word. "We are the APEX of evolution, what all LIFE aspires to be! When the TIME comes, secondborn, you will learn YOURS." Even in captivity, the creature was defiant. It certainly wasn't lacking in spirit. If only it could learn to shut up, or at least talk like a normal person instead of a comic book super-villain.

"Evolution is a gradual change in response to a species' environment. It has no apex or destiny, as it is reactive by definition. Life adapts, it does not move towards a certain goal. The fact that you believe otherwise shows that you either possess an overinflated ego or are incapable of understanding basic biological processes." Kerrigan actually felt a little sorry for Abathur. The more him had to listen to that damn thing butchering his beloved science, the more annoyed he seemed to get.

The Protoss finally managed to snap out of her fear-induced trance and turned to Kerrigan. "You…you made this thing?! H…how? It cannot… This…twisted monstrosity?!"

Before she could continue, the hybrid bellowed: "You give these INSECTS too much credit, FIRSTBORN. They do not POSSESS the means to create TRUE sentient life."

"For once, we are in agreement." Abathur said. "This being is no creation of ours, Protoss. If it were, the creature would have been thought to act responsibly, rather than an antagonist in a Terran children's show. There is a reason we keep it chained. I believe it is almost certainly insane."

"You DARE?!"

Without acknowledging the hybrid, he continued. "I suspect that their odd speech pattern is the result of a series of malformed neural pathway in the creature's mind. It is surprising to find such an obvious flaw in a creature designed to be 'perfect'." The hybrid twitched and turned in his harness, but eventually quieted down when it realized it's struggles were fruitless. "Hmm. Limited emotional self-control. Intriguing. No more than a mere human, but still. Yes, I believe I can classify you as sentient."

So Abathur insults the thing to see if it can control its emotions? Kerrigan seriously hoped the hybrid never found a way to break its confines. If it did, she'd probably have to clean her chief-geneticist up with a mop.

Lassara had already ran away. The queen could easily find her, but decided to leave her be for now. Seeing that thing couldn't have been easy for her. Kerrigan was a trained soldier and looking at those things was difficult, even for her. The Protoss will probably need some privacy. Probably accompanied by something alcoholic.

**Auriga Tribe Flagship, Deep Space**

Zeratul slid through the elegant halls of the carrier. From an outsider's perspective, the vessel seemed needlessly spacious. The sheer size of the ship could theoretically house hundreds, if not thousands of people with ease, but this was often not necessary. Unlike the Terrans, a Protoss ship could theoretically be crewed by a single warrior. Between their advanced technology and their innate psychic abilities, vessels did not necessarily need a larger crew, though they would be more effective if they had. During the height of the Protoss empire, these halls would have been filled with scientists and historians exploring and studying the worlds in their territory. It was a relic of an old time long past. These empty halls served as a painful reminder of what once was, and what the recent wars have cost the Protoss people.

However, the empty halls were a boon to the prelate's current mission. He had to confront this vessel's captain. A man who also doubled as the fleet's commander. A man who convinced Admiral Urun to give him a fleet to strike against the Zerg without the Hierarchy's consent, which would inevitably send the fragile government into disarray once it was discovered. A man who allied himself with the Terrans, and then abandoned them to the Swarm. How such an individual could ever rise to the rank of High Templar was beyond Zeratul's understanding, until he discovered the commander's name.

This man, this captain, this traitor, may very well be the best lead he had on the elusive 'Fallen One'. Zeratul needed to interrogate him, to learn what he knows. Time was running out, for everyone. Whatever the Fallen One's plan was, he would undoubtedly set it in motion soon, if he hadn't already. This man was going to tell him what it was and how to stop it. Nothing else mattered. Not even the plight of a dying Hierarchy. While it pained the Dark Templar to ignore his people in a time of need, he felt that he would be doing his people an even greater disservice by ignoring the prophecy.

Zeratul finally arrived at the vessel's control center: a massive chamber near the top of the vessel. In the middle stood the nerve center of the ship, the devices needed to control every last piece of equipment this carrier possessed. Using it was a masterful wielder of psionic power. A man whom he thought to be his brother in arms…

"High Templar Karass…"

The templar turned around. He did not seem surprised at all. Instead, he looked annoyed, as if Zeratul's presence was an eventuality he prepared for, but hoped he would never have to deal with. "Zeratul. I did not expect to see you here."

Feigning innocence, the Nerazim continued. "The feeling is mutual, templar. I did not expect to see you after what transpired on Ulaan."

"Understandable. The escape was…difficult. It is an event I would rather not speak off."

"You have my sympathies. It is a pity you could not save the warriors that followed me to that world. Leaving them behind to perish at the hands of the Zerg is one of the most painful things I have ever been forced to do."

"They fought to the bitter end. If it is any consolation, Prelate, your brothers died a death that any templar could be proud off."

"Did they, Templar?" He knew it. Zeratul knew it. He didn't want to believe it but his worst fear had just been realized. "Preservers are a great source for information on every topic a Protoss has ever decided to dedicate himself to. But, with enough patience, one can use these memories for a far more sinister purpose. Find enough memories of the same person, and you can reconstruct his personality. One can even create a near perfect impersonation of a Protoss. Of course, memories at the point of death tend to be incomplete, which is how such an impostor can be brought into the light."

"A curious choice of words for a man who lives in shadow." The templar was completely unfazed by his accusation. The two warriors both knew each other's secret. There was no point in pretending otherwise anymore.

"Allow me to fill the gaps in your memory. I had no allies at the time but the forces High Templar Karass brought with him. I sought something, and the templar helped me acquire it. The Queen of Blades attempted to stop us, but he offered to stay behind." The prelate stepped forward, his green eyes piercing straight into the templar's soul. "I saw his warriors fall, one by one. I saw him smite the Zerg with a fury I have not seen since the day Tassadar sacrificed himself to silence the Overmind. And I saw him tear his own body to ribbons in a final, desperate attempt to lash out against the tide of darkness opposing him." Zeratul balled his hand into a fist. A green, glowing blade of pure, cold fury materialized from his wristband. "High Templar Karass is dead. You desecrate his memory by wearing his form! Reveal yourself, impostor!"

The templar turned to him and took a few steps forward. All he said in response, were the words: "As you wish…" before his eyes turned a horrid shade of blood-red.

_A/N Who was the genius that characterized the Hybrids and the Dark Voice? Seriously Blizzard, do you know how annoying it is to have to CAPITALIZE a WORD every so OFTEN for no apparent reason? What's the point behind it anyway? Are you trying to convey some sort of meaning I'm too stupid to figure out or do you just really hate your voice actors? Right now, it makes the Hybrids rather laughable. I know they are supposed to be some sort of eldritch horror, but right now they are more like cartoon villains. If anyone working for Blizzard is reading this, this fanfic writer suggests you change it around a bit in the sequels._

_Let me give you an example of how I think a villain like the hybrids should be executed. Before I continue, a spoiler warning._

_Warning! Massive Spoilers for Mass Effect ahead! If you haven't played that game, do so now before continuing. No seriously, Mass Effect is awesome. Play it, I'll wait._

_*100 hours later*_

_Finished? Good. I knew you'd like it. Anyway, the main villain of that game is called Sovereign, a Reaper that uses the other 'main villain', Saren, as a puppet. Like the Dark Voice and his hybrids, it is an ancient being of immense power trying to bring about the end of the world using, amongst others, mind control. However, there are crucial differences between the two._

_Compare the dialogue Maar has in Wings of Liberty with the dialogue Sovereign gets in Mass Effect (specifically, the Virmire mission). Also, compare in what situation the dialogue is delivered and the situation in which we encounter the villains._

_Maar keeps yammering on about being your DOOOOOM, right before you send him packing back to his pet preservers to heal up. Sovereign calmly explains to you that you are screwed no matter what you do, and you only fight him (or at least his proxy) at the very end in a very difficult boss battle._

_When Maar says you're going to die, it's a mostly ineffectual threat. When Sovereign says you're going to die, he says it as a certainty. He has heard more idle boasting from mere mortals than he can remember, and he simply doesn't care about your pointless defiance anymore. He doesn't even bother trying to stop you, because…well, he's the heart and soul of an entire civilization pumped into a 2 kilometer long doomship. What are you going to do, spit on him?_

_The Dark Voice gloats about his victory throughout the mission 'In Utter Darkness'. Sovereign doesn't gloat at all. Why should he, he's done this for millions of years. Do you think an experienced bug exterminator monologues to the ants he's about to kill? Of course not, it's just another Tuesday to him._

_On the whole, I think Sovereign is easily the best villain in the whole Mass Effect Series, if not one of the best villain in gaming period. He only gives one single speech, but it can and will send shivers down your spine. Like good horror games, Bioware has realized that the less we see of something, the more frightening it appears. In Mass Effect 1, we barely get to see what the Reapers are really capable off. Everything they do, they do through proxies like Saren and the Geth. As a result, when we do finally face Sovereign, we have no idea what we're really up against. Remember that part in the final mission, where you are climbing up the Citadel Tower and you see Sovereign in the distance? I don't know about you, but when I played through that part, the thought that kept running through my head was 'Good God how am I supposed to kill that thing?' THAT is what you're supposed to think when facing the franchise's primary antagonists. You are supposed to feel small and insignificant. It's what makes the inevitable victory over said antagonist all the sweeter._

_Now, back to Starcraft. I think Blizzard showed their cards too soon when they gave us hybrids to fight in the Protoss mini-campaign. Imagine if Maar, instead of fighting himself, empowered one of the corrupted Protoss to do it for him. Imagine if he teleported away, instead of fighting us directly. Imagine if we never saw a hybrid fight on the front lines in the mission 'In Utter Darkness'. When the hybrids would invade properly in either Heart of the Swarm or Legacy of the Void, we'd all piss ourselves, AS WE SHOULD. Even if defeating them will be as easy then as it was in Wings of Liberty now, your first reaction would still involve a lot of expletives. Let's face it, if you're trying to write an eldritch horror kind of villain, your audience's first reaction should leave stains in their pants. If they don't, you're doing something wrong._

_My point is: in games, victory is almost always guaranteed in some way. The key to writing a good eldritch horror villain in a game is maintaining the illusion of invincibility as long as possible. _

_So how is this relevant to my story, you ask? _

_Now, that would be telling…_


	70. Chapter 70

**Auriga Tribe Flagship, Deep Space**

Karass, or the entity posing as him, lashed out with all the psychic fury it could muster, but the Dark Templar effortlessly blocked its attack. Although the imposter's power was considerable, it was nowhere near that of the original high templar. In frustration, the creature tore panels and equipment of the floor and hurled them at its opponent, but to no avail. Centuries of experience and training had honed the prelate's reflexes, and he dodged the thrown equipment with ease. He stepped through the shadows and reappeared right in front of his foe. With a practiced grace, he relieved the pretender of his hand and thrust his blade into the creature's chest. For any Protoss, such an injury would leave them incapacitated at best. But, to Zeratul's horror this creature was no Protoss…

As if nothing had happened, Karass pushed the prelate's sword arm away and telekinetically tossed him aside. The Dark Templar quickly regained his footing, but saw the impostor _regenerating_ its severed hand before his eyes. Was it a Zerg? A Protoss? Something in between? Irrelevant. The creature was almost certainly an agent of the Fallen One. Whatever this abomination was, it had to die. Immediately.

He closed the distance, hoping to sever its head, but his opponent morphed his arm into a bone-like blade, and _parried_ the warp blade with it. Before the weapon could cut through its armored limb, Karass kicked the templar in his chest, staggering him. Immediately, it lashed out with its newly acquired weapon, but Zeratul was ready for it. Effortlessly, he dodged its blow and returned the favor by slicing the weaponized limb clean off.

The creature snarled in frustration. It realized that it would never defeat one of the most lethal individuals in the sector on its own, so it called upon its true talent. The impostor was never meant to fight in a battle, but to take control of others and let them do its dirty work. The bridge filled with light as dozens of zealots began warping in. Zeratul felt the psychic presence emanating from them. To his dismay, it was not unlike those found on the guardians of Zhakul. These poor souls were completely under its control. The only way to free them, at least as far as the prelate knew, was to eliminate the controller. The chances of that happening, however, were shrinking by the moment. Although he could easily defeat one or two Protoss warriors at a time, he could not fight this many simultaneously. He needed withdraw and return with allies. At least he now knew the face of his enemy. It might have taken over this fleet, but it won't take over any others.

Zeratul blinked into the lower structure of the ship, hoping that he would be able to get to his ship, the Void Seeker, before Karass' minions caught up with him. Even if he could defeat them by taking them out one by one, he'd rather avoid taking more lives than he needed to. In all likelihood, his opponent would simply send for more reinforcements if he did. He was outmatched, and he knew it. It was pointless to continue fighting.

"I have been told that you are one of the greatest warriors alive, Zeratul." The impostor spoke in his mind. Its voice was almost identical to that of Karass, but it had an unnatural rasp to it. Anyone who heard it, including the warriors serving on the fleet, would inevitably notice the difference, yet it spoke anyway. Either it didn't care about being discovered anymore, or its control was so strong, none who'd hear it would be able to tell anyone about it. Given what he has seen it do so far, the prelate feared the latter. "Yet you run like a coward when victory is no longer certain."

"Spoken by the individual who lets others do his fighting for him. You may think you understand us, but you obviously know little of the ways of the Nerazim."

"Perhaps I do not, though I wonder for how long such knowledge will be relevant. Your people are a dying race, Templar. No one can outrun their fate forever, not even you. You can escape this ship, but we will find you eventually. You have seen your doom already, have you not?"

The prelate ignored the memories surfacing in his mind. "The future is clouded and uncertain, betrayer. Not even you or your dread master cannot hope to predict it."

"Then why do you fight on the behest of the Overmind? Do you truly think the ramblings of a rotting sac of pus will lead you the answers you seek?" Zeratul stopped. How could that thing know about the prophecy? "Do not act surprised. If your pathetic intellect was sufficient to uncover its prophecy, surely you can understand that you betters can find it as well."

"The first step in wisdom and understanding is the acknowledgement that there is still much to learn. For a being striving for perfection, you are more flawed that you are willing to admit. You have yet to comprehend humility, for example."

"Humility is the refuge of the weak." Karass snapped back, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Zeratul was shocked to hear these things coming from his old brother-in-arms. Correction: the thing that posed as his brother-in-arms. As difficult as it was, he had to see this thing as a separate entity from the high templar. They never were the same being, and they never will be. High Templar Karass is dead. His wisdom, knowledge, and power are one with the Khala now. This thing is nothing more than a desecration of his memory. Still, it was nearly impossible to hear his voice and not feel betrayed. The Dark Templar briefly wondered if Jim Raynor felt like this when the Queen of Blades turned on him…

"It is also the refuge of the wise. I will escape this place, and when I do, all will know of your duplicity."

"By all means, let them know. The pieces are already in place. Our plans have been set in motion long ago and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. So bring your fleets, your allies, and your machines of war. You merely delay the inevitable."

"You underestimate our powers, abomination. We have learned from our pride and are far greater than you think." Truth be told, Zeratul was merely bluffing. In spite of all his efforts, he still didn't know when or where the enemy would strike, or how strong their forces would be.

"In another world, I would have believed you. Tell me, did you know that the Hierarchy is dying? That your once-unified civilization is coming apart at the seams, sliding ever so slowly towards another Aeon of Strife? If you do not, you will know soon enough. I can only wonder if anyone will listen to your warnings when they have more immediate concerns."

"Artanis will not allow that to happen." Zeratul knew that the Hierarchy was in trouble, but surely it wasn't that bad…yet.

"Ah, Artanis. The boy who now wears the mantle of leadership. One that is rightfully yours…"

"The current Hierarch is every bit as capable as I would have been."

"Do not lie to me, prelate. Lying to your friends is unbecoming of a man in your position." The creature teased, maliciously. "Artanis is merely a warrior. His skill in battle may be incredible for one so young, but his political skills are sorely lacking. Yours on the other hand… There are only a few Protoss left with the ability to lead your race effectively. Of those, only your word carries enough weight to unite the warring tribes that make up your people. Imagine what could have been had you done as your matriarch wished you to. Imagine the power your people could have wielded, what marvels of engineering they could have created. You could have led a new golden age. You might even have made your people powerful enough to stop us. I know you raided one of our facilities four years ago. You knew what was coming. You could have prepared. Instead, you hide on some forgotten planet, wallowing in remorse, even though you knew there was a threat on the horizon all along."

"I have no time for this, monster!" The Dark Templar began to run. He wanted out, to be away from this place. It weren't the soldiers in pursuit that he wanted to get away from, it was that damned voice taunting him. But above all, he wanted to get away from the guilt that this imposter was heaping onto him in spades. Whoever said 'words will never hurt me' was horribly, horribly wrong. Malice can cut sharper than any knife, especially if the person taunting you is telling the truth. To his credit, this imposter hasn't lied to him yet…

"You have failed them, Zeratul. Your people needed you, and you abandoned them. Your matriarch needed you, and you abandoned her. What is left to challenge us now? A broken collection of tribes, locked in petty conflicts over disagreements millennia old? A shattered empire trying to stay alive, even when its own people no longer want it? A young mutant girl who can barely control her own emotions, let alone the entirety of the Zerg Swarm? You have spent so much time chasing the past and the future, that you have ignored the present until it is too late. Open your eyes, Prelate, and behold what you have wrought. _You_ are responsible for all this. What is to come so no longer a war to us. It is nothing more than an execution."

He couldn't bear it. He had to get out before he completely lost control of his emotions. It wasn't the real Karass, but hearing such accusations was agonizing nonetheless. He finally managed to blink aboard his ship and sped off as quickly as his craft would allow. When he jumped into the next system and was certain that he wasn't being followed, he set his craft down on the nearest planet with a hospitable atmosphere. Then, for the first time in centuries, he screamed in pure, impotent rage.

**Ruins of Backwater Station, Mar Sara**

Rage.

Pure, impotent rage.

All broodmothers were capable of feeling emotion, but Sa'ti had never felt anything like this before in her short existence. A rage so deep, so powerful, that it drowned out everything else. One that made her want to grab something with her hands and rip it into tiny pieces. But she didn't. She couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, it wouldn't let her. She hated this feeling, almost as much as she hated the reason she had it.

The creature had arrived a few days ago, seemingly from nowhere, appearing to her as a great, foul light on the edge of her vision. As any good broodmother would, Sa'ti sent forces to either capture or kill the newcomer, but every force she sent mysteriously fell silent. Like a disease, it spread throughout the Zerg on the planet, turning them to its will. Eventually, it found her…

Its demands were simple: she would serve the creature. It didn't even bother to add the phrase 'or die'. She simply would. And she did. When it spoke, she felt compelled to obey it. Nothing she did could stop her from obeying the creature's overpowering directives. It wanted her to fight the Terrans, and she had no choice but to comply. What bothered her most, however, was that the creature did not deserve the respect it demanded from her.

'Respect'. An odd word for a Zerg to use. In her studies of human behavior, the word 'respect' is often mentioned. It means 'to hold in high esteem'. An unspoken agreement of an individual's worth and their ability to accomplish their assigned tasks. One could have respect for those greater than themselves, but also for equals or lesser being. A fascinating concept. A leader did not have to demand obedience from their subjects. The lesser humans would simply obey him if the leader had proven himself capable. Most Zerg do not seem to realize this, but respect is just about the only thing holding human society together. It is their way of maintaining an ordered hierarchy since their psychic abilities are negligible at best. Without it, their civilization would never have been able to exist.

What really fascinated the broodmother was how applicable the concept was to the Zerg's own society. Sa'ti respected elder broodmothers like Za'gara, who had led her brood on countless successful campaigns throughout the sector. She respected beings like Abathur, whose skill in manipulating genes was legendary, even amongst a species to whom genetic engineering is as natural as breathing is to most others. But above all, she respected the Queen. Not just because she was the most powerful entity in the Swarm by far, but because her presence alone could move civilizations. Through deception, skill, and strength of arms, the Queen had managed to make entire species whisper her name in terror. Even amongst the humans, where knowledge propagation was notoriously slow and inefficient, the title 'Queen of Blades' inspired fear. _That_ is true power. _That_ is worthy of respect.

But then the Queen died…

Now, this…thing, this…travesty of a true Zerg, arrived out of the blue and _demanded_ obedience. What right did it have to rule over her? The most important part about respect is that it isn't a birthright, but something to be earned. Being born powerful doesn't make someone worthy of respect. Using that power to achieve something great does. Even as a Terran, the Queen had been a feared and powerful warrior. It had more than earned the right to command the broodmother as she saw fit. The creature, however, had done nothing of the sort. Still, its power had proven to be too much. All Sa'ti could do was rage in her own confines, praying that they would one day crack.

And when they did, she would be ready…

_A/N Question: Now that I have uncovered my first plot twist (or at least the closest thing this story probably has to a plot twist so far) with Karass being a Cylon wannabe, how did I do? Did I gave it away too soon? Did it appear out of nowhere for you? Should I try doing it again?_


	71. Chapter 71

**General's Quarters, White Star**

Williams entered his superior's quarters to find the general arguing over the comms with none other than the emperor himself. Judging by their voices, neither of them seemed very pleased.

"General, you'd do well remembering who you're talking to. I didn't hire you to chase goddamn fairytales."

"This is more than a fairytale, sir. I have good reason to believe that at least one Protoss/Zerg hybrid has attacked my men already. If we have a weapon that can stop the Zerg and it somehow got loose, I need to know about it. If the Zerg Swarm has a new weapon that can stop us, I need to know about it too. I can't fight the enemy blind."

"You don't seem to do much better even when you do see everything. Need I remind you that over half the ships I gave you have been lost?" The emperor replied in a chastising tone.

"They were lost because our 'allies' turned on us. Allies _you_ provided." Morrigan replied, viciously.

"There will be a reckoning for them eventually. That is not your responsibility, however. You _will_ focus on the Zerg and you _will_ stop them. Now, I don't want to hear any more ghost stories out of you. Is that clear, General? Stop the Zerg, or don't bother coming back!"

The emperor closed the channel, leaving a furious general and a rather confused captain. "Son of a bitch. I needed simple information and he lied straight to my face."

"Is this about the hybrids, sir? Didn't you laugh at Raynor for suggesting that they even exist?"

Morrigan leaned back in his chair. "On a hunch, I had the techs look at the Raiders' suit recordings. I figured that if Raynor was so sure about the hybrids, there must have been some truth to his story. The recordings were heavily encrypted, but we managed to uncover some of it. Needless to say, it seems to lend some credibility to the rebel's claims."

"So…what did they find?"

"An unknown creature, one that indeed looks like a cross between a Protoss and a Zerg, attacked the Raiders at some point. I don't know where it came from or how it got there or even if it really is a Protoss/Zerg hybrid, but the fact that no one told me about those things worries me."

"What does that have to do with the emperor? He seemed rather cross with you…" Williams asked cautiously.

"The emperor knew about them. I don't know how, but he did. The man is not as good a liar as he thinks he is. What I want to know is why he would hide it from me."

"Maybe it was classified?" It wouldn't be the first time, the captain thought. "Or maybe he really didn't know. If the Zerg made this thing..."

"…it wouldn't have been attacking the Raiders." The general interrupted. "But if we made it, why hasn't anyone told me about it? A creature like that could have been very helpful, even if we can't fully control it. We might have been able to nip our Zerg problem in the bud if we had a couple of those things back on L-540."

"Sir, you don't seriously think that any sane human being would try and create such a thing, let alone use it in combat? What good could possibly come from combining the two biggest threats to our species ever?"

The general sighed disappointedly. "Captain, humanity has managed to get this far because we realized early on that annihilation is a really bad thing. When faced with extinction, any alternative, no matter how morally bankrupt, becomes preferable. Any law, written and unwritten, can be broken if it means the survival of our species. So, yes, I'm not surprised if a Dominion researcher created this perversion of science out of desperation. The Zerg have always been stronger than we are, remember? We need every edge we can get."

"I still think it's a bad idea…" Williams protested.

"And I agree. Still, someone _has_ created those things, so we need to prepare for them. I can't afford any more distractions if we want to have any chance of stopping the Zerg from killing us all. If we can't get the intel we need through the official channels, we'll just have to get creative. That's where you come in."

"Sir?"

"I want you to talk to Raynor again. There's more going on than the emperor is telling me. You're better with people than I am, so hopefully we'll get lucky. Squeeze every drop of intel you can out of him. Take your time, it's better to get this done right. Next week, I want to know everything he knows about the hybrids."

"Seriously? The nasty general didn't get what he wanted, so the nice captain gets a go instead? A good cop, bad cop routine? He'll see through that right away. Besides, what incentive does he have to tell us the truth?"

"The survival of the human race being at stake would be a good place to start, if he still cares about such trivial un-zerglike things." Morrigan said mockingly. "I'll leave your strategy up to you. We'll check his word with the suit recordings we recovered. I don't think we'll be able to get the whole story, but it's better than nothing."

"I'll do my best, sir…" The captain said, uneasily.

"Dismissed."

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

"There will be a reckoning for them eventually. That is not your responsibility, however. You will focus on the Zerg. Now, I don't want to hear any more ghost stories out of you. Is that clear, General? Stop the Zerg, or don't bother coming back!" Mengsk said, before cutting the channel. "Son of a bitch. How did he know about those things? I thought you destroyed the compromised facilities?!"

"I did, your highness." Doctor Narud replied. "Then again, the good general was rather sketchy on some things, wasn't he? He never told us _exactly_ how he found out about the hybrids, correct? Perhaps the Zerg queen told him. Or Commander Raynor…"

Mengsk frowned. He didn't like the idea that one of his top general is lying to him about something like that. "Possibly. Still, I don't think he'd be lying to me unless he thought it somehow helped him stop the Zerg. It's probably for the best if I let him be for now."

"Perhaps. There is little we could do to help him anyway. The surviving specimens have yet to respond to our commands. Unfortunate that we do not have access to the artifact. If we had…"

"You know that damned son of mine took it." The emperor said, angrily. "You'll have to make do with what you have, doctor. This isn't your only problem and I don't want my plans slowed down any further. You're not being let off the hook just yet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have another appointment."

"Of course, I should be going. You will have our next report by the end of the week."

The doctor left, to be replaced by the infamous Charles 'Charlie' Davis, PR manager extraordinaire, as he called himself. Although completely insufferable as a human being, he was probably one of the best assets Mengsk had, having managed the Dominion's propaganda campaigns for over four years. This man, having turned the act of bullshitting into an art-form, could convince anyone of just about anything. If there was anyone in the sector who could salvage the Dominion now, it would be him.

"Mr. Davis, thank you for coming. I was hoping you could assist me in stopping the current PR crisis."

"Not sure how much I can do, boss. As far as I can tell, you're on the naughty list of just about every man, woman, and child in the entire sector. I'm good, but I'm not a magician." The agent replied, as frighteningly cheerful as he always was.

"Mr. Davis, I hired you to help salvage my reputation in case of events like this. Maybe you need some incentives…" The emperor said menacingly.

"Boss, your reputation is _beyond_ help. I mean, people think you're a mass murderer. No one can keep that from the populace for long. Public memory is short, but something like that? Nothing you do will make them trust you ever again. Hell, you could rule our species for a hundred years, bring peace and prosperity to all who live and finally give the last living Zerg a lethal case of pneumonia with your dying breath and people will still have trouble forgiving you. Believe me, finding me 'motivations' isn't going to change that. If you go down, anyone even remotely tied to you is probably gonna hang too. Don't think I need more encouragement than that."

Good to know that he's motivated… "So, how are we going to fix this mess?"

Davis closed his eyes, trying to think of the best way to put this. "Well, everybody hates your guts now. It's too late to fix that. Like I said before, the only way you could stop people from starting another revolution is by convincing people that putting up with you is better than not having you at all. The alternative is a bunch of riots followed by a noose. At least, that's the best that me and the PR boys can come up with. If I were in your shoes though, I'd get a fancy starship and run my stupid arse away before someone sticks a pitchfork in it."

Mengsk frowned deeply. It wasn't the answer he wanted. He was not about to abandon _his_ sector, especially at the request of this clown. "Unacceptable. When I hired you, you said you could provide me with an iron-clad reputation…"

"Well, those bastards hit it with a bloody yamato cannon. Like I said, not a magician. Really, you should have told me the truth about that mess on Tarsonis years ago. I know, classified and all that, but still; I could have prepared for it coming out. Maybe spun it into a 'horrible-but-necessary' thing. Assuming you can even prepare for something like that. I mean, seriously, mass murder of an entire planet? How am I supposed to work with that? It's not like it's an everyday occurrence."

It was an uncomfortable truth, but it needed to be said. At least Davis didn't judge the emperor's actions. There was nothing more annoying than those moral crusaders who fail to understand that all wars have sacrifices. "Well then, how do I convince people to put up with me?"

"Invasion. Zerg, Protoss, rainbow ponies, doesn't matter. Anyone willing to annihilate us would be enough to get the people's hatred off your back, at least for a while. An invasion by an alien power, real or not, would probably be your best shot at holding the throne. Still, it won't hold up for long. The moment things quiet down, people will start revolting again. I mean, just look at what's happening now. With the Zerg all but destroyed people feel they don't need you anymore. Lo and behold, a revolution. From what I hear, people rather have your son in charge. Doesn't really surprise me: the handsome and noble warrior prince image always sells well with the public."

Mentions of his son only served to further annoy Mengsk, but he knew he had to stay calm for the moment. This man was only trying to help. Indeed, he might be the only one that could. "What if I told you that the Zerg weren't defeated yet?"

Davis seemed shocked. Zerg were one of the few things that genuinely scared him. "Please tell me that that's just crap I need to sell to the public, right? The Zerg are really gone, right?"

"Unfortunately, no. They have just beaten one of our fleets sent to reclaim a fallen Dominion world." Not entirely the truth, of course, but close enough. "Would that help?"

"They what?!" The agent asked incredulously. "Are you trying to give me an ulcer? Look, don't tell me if that's actually true. Hell, I don't want to know. Whatever it is, don't tell _anyone_. Seriously, if anybody hears that, the metaphorical excrement _will_ hit the fan and lodge itself in places not even the best Morian cleaning lady can get to. If you really lost a big battle against the Zerg, they'll be begging Prince Valerian to ride in on his magical space-horse and save them all. If you won, they'll just think you're reading from the Confederacy's playbook by exaggerating an alien infestation that you're probably responsible for in the first place. Just…keep that a secret for as long as you can. Your best bet right now is to make sure that everyone thinks you are the only one that can hold humanity together. Discredit Valerian and the Raiders in any way you can. I don't know, say that they have an alliance with the Zerg or something. If you can find me some mud I can sling their way, I'll make people believe it."

"If that's what you need, I'll find it for you. Don't worry, we'll get through this." The emperor said.

Davis didn't seem very reassured, however. "Wish I had your optimism, boss. Really do…"

As much as Mengsk hated the man for being the cheeriest pessimist in the universe, he had realized a long time ago that Davis' help was invaluable, even to a skilled orator like himself. The Dominion would have fallen years ago if it wasn't for him and his crew. He'd survive this crisis. The emperor always did.

**Brig, White Star, Deep Space**

Captain Williams was quite nervous. He really shouldn't be: the man he was about to interrogate was locked in the most secure part of the ship, alone save for the team of ghosts assigned to keep an eye on him. Williams had nothing to fear. Still, he was about to meet the most infamous pirate in the sector in person. Enough to make anyone nervous.

"Lemme guess, you're the bad cop?" Raynor grumbled. "I guess you still haven't found your Zerg-killing silver bullet yet."

Williams didn't realize he was this transparent. "What makes you think I'm the bad cop? People think I'm very reasonable compared to the general."

"Well, all he did was laugh at me. If he was the bad cop, I would have at least expected a thumbscrew or two…"

"Right. Actually, I'm the good cop. I only get to use the cattle prod. It's just that Morrigan had already filled up his torture quota for the year dealing with mercs. Hurting you would have meant more paperwork for him. You know how it goes. Sorry to disappoint you." The captain had hoped that a little humor would lighten the mood. To his relief, it seemed to work.

"A Dominion soldier with a sense of humor. Guess I really haven't seen it all yet. So, you have me at a disadvantage…"

"Captain Williams."

"Right. Captain, what are you really here for?"

Straight to business… "Information. Humanity is hanging by a thread and we're trying to make sure we don't all go extinct in the next few years. But for starters, I'd like to ask a personal question, if you don't mind."

The commander briefly considered the question before replying: "Alright, shoot."

"Why are you fighting the Dominion?"

Raynor scoffed at the question. "Do you really have to ask?"

"You are one of the few people who really know the full scale of the threats we're fighting. I know the Dominion is far from perfect, but dividing us when the Zerg are knocking at our door doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I mean, emperor Mengsk can't possibly be worse than the aliens, right?" The response Williams got was a slight snicker.

"Captain, emperor Mengsk is half the reason the Zerg were as bad as they were. You want to know why I'm fighting him?" The rebel pulled a picture out of his pocket and showed it to him. A picture of a young, red-haired woman. "_This_ is why I'm fighting him."

"You're staging a revolution because of your girlfriend?" Williams was confused. He always thought the rebel would be driven by some sort of higher goal like freedom or justice. He didn't expect his reasons to be so mundane…until he recognized the girl in the picture. "Wait…is that…"

"She was Mengsk's second-in-command. A ghost he rescued from the Confederacy. As a thank-you, the girl poured her heart and soul into the Sons of Korhal, standing behind him every step of the way. Even when he started using psi-emitters to lure Zerg to populated areas, she still believed in him. Even when I started to have my doubts, she believed in him. Your emperor betrayed her and left her to die at the hands of the Zerg." In spite of the captain's best efforts to hide his disgust, Raynor could see the man turn slightly pale. "If you need some air, go ahead. I'm not going anywhere." As much as Williams wanted to, he wouldn't give the rebel the satisfaction. "Suit yourself. Anyway, I rushed down to the surface to find her, but I couldn't get there in time. The Zerg had already taken her, doing God-knows-what to her. When I saw her again, it was just in time to see the Queen of Blades being unleashed on the universe. You wanted to know why I'm fighting Mengsk? Well, that's why. He's an egotistic, backstabbing scumbag. A danger to everyone, including you. Poison: nothing more, nothing less. If you really want to keep humanity safe, I suggest looking at the people you work for first."

The captain was unnerved by Raynor's story. He had heard bits and pieces of it, but to hear it all from the horse's mouth… Williams quickly regained his footing. While interesting and certainly revealing, this wasn't the information he needed. "That doesn't explain why you're working with the Zerg now. The Queen of Blades…"

"…is dead, Captain. Like I told the general and anyone else who asks, the Queen of Blades died when the artifact fired. The woman in charge of the Zerg that you attacked doesn't want to kill you. It's the same girl I fell in love with years ago, I'm sure of it. Stop focusing on her. Those hybrids are the real threat."

"The hybrids, yes. We've found some of your suit recordings. It turns out that you were telling the truth, at least about them. Please, tell me everything you can about them."

Raynor just laughed in response. "Why bother? It sounds like something ripped off from a bad supernatural thriller. You're far too sober to believe me anyway. Hell, I have trouble believing it myself…"

"Try me."

"Alright then. Guess I have nothing better to do anyway. Should I start at the bit with the crazy Xel'Naga or the Overmind's prophecy?"

Williams stared at the commander, wondering if the man was pulling his leg. "Start from the beginning."

"Alright then, but I hope you've got a helmet handy. I might just blow your mind…"


	72. Chapter 72

_A/N Holy hell, this story has been going on for a year already and people are still actually reading this. I'm touched._

_Now, for this special occasion, I have produce a chapter that's very close to my heart…well, actually, it's just the next one on the chopping board, but what do you expect from me? Proper planning?_

_Wait, you do?_

_Oh dear…_

**Leviathan, High Orbit, Mar Sara**

"Great, a dust covered piss-hole." Tiberias moaned, as he looked down at the planet below him. "At least there aren't any ships waiting for us this time. Good thing too, we only brought one leviathan."

Mar Sara.

No other planet in the entire sector has suffered as much as this little red-orange ball of misery has. First the Zerg invaded, then the Protoss, then greedy Kel-Morian miners, then the Zerg a second time. It was nothing short of a miracle that there were any humans left at all. Even the latest Zerg invasion hadn't pushed the Terran colonists off this world: Kerrigan could still sense thousands of them on the surface. If their stray thoughts were any indication, many of the people down there weren't even soldiers. The invasion must have stayed clear of the major cities. Not that surprising, since the Zerg hadn't come for the planet, but for the artifact the Dominion had dug up.

It takes a particular kind of stubbornness to willingly settle on a devastated world, especially if you don't have the hyper-resilient Zerg physiology to keep you alive. Only the hardiest, or craziest, people would even try. Trying to reclaim this colony seemed like a fool's errant: a lot of resources spent for very limited gain. Of course, if Valerian spoke the truth, the political gains from re-conquering this planet would be worth the effort for the Dominion. Now, it was up to Kerrigan to make their 'victory' as anticlimactic and un-heroic as possible.

"Actually, the planet is covered iron oxide, also known as rust." Izsha interjected. "So technically the correct term would be 'rust covered piss-hole'."

"That doesn't change the fact that you'd have to be criminally stupid to live here willingly. I mean, what's really down there apart from rocks, glass, and more rocks? They have plenty of rocks on Chau Sara, why not go there?"

"Politics, I presume. The planet has always been a hive of anti-government sentiments, even before the Dominion was formed."

"You mean the Dominion realized this planet was useless enough to leave it to the Morians? I wonder if they let them have it as a joke. Let the corporations play with the damned rebels for a change."

"Actually, the Protoss purification has exposed many rich mineral veins." The adjutant explained. "Rumor has it that some of the ores have unique properties because of it. Whether or not those minerals are of any use to us remains to be seen, but it has been enough to spark renewed interest in the planet. Of course, there was also the matter of the artifact…"

"The Raiders found one of the pieces here, didn't they?" Kerrigan asked, her interest piqued by the mention of the Xel'Naga device. "I suppose that we aren't going to find any more Xel'Naga artifacts around here, are we?"

"Unlikely, at least within our timeframe, Mistress." Izsha answered to the queen's dismay. Their technology could have been useful, or at least a good bargaining chip at some point. "Neither the Dominion nor our invasion was able to recover anything else of value. There may be more, but we would have to do a thorough survey of the planet. I doubt that there is time for that."

"I suppose there isn't. What about the Zerg there?"

"A minor brood was stationed there after our main invasion force moved on to attack other worlds. The broodmother in charge, Sa'ti, was ordered to dig in and wait for further orders. Unfortunately…"

"She's decided that she'd be better off on her own, hasn't she?" Kerrigan interrupted. Many of the broodmothers were more independent than she would have liked. While she didn't mind having servants that could think for themselves, it would have been nice if they would all just come with her without a struggle.

"Mistress, Sa'ti hasn't responded at all. She's still alive, as far as I can tell, but she hasn't said a word to me. I am unable to determine why." Izsha said, somewhat worried.

"Well, then. Best to assume she's gone rogue and hope she's just taking a nap or something. What is she like? Can I reason with her?"

"In theory, one can reason with all the broodmothers. A sufficient show of force should be more than enough to assert your authority otherwise. Sa'ti, in particular, is more like a scholar than a soldier. In all likelihood, she'll be too busy with her research to bother opposing you."

"What kind of research?" The Swarm could always use some extra brainpower. While the wise Za'gara and the philosophically inclined Me'dea had their uses, they weren't much help in the science department. Having an extra scientist to help Abathur around would significantly speed up his research, leading to more breeds of Zerg or interesting upgrades to existing ones.

"Human assimilation; their culture as well as the humans themselves." Well, so much for that idea, Kerrigan thought. Whatever the broodmother would have invented, it would probably be too tainted to use in good conscience. Still, it might give some new insights into what's happening in her own body. Maybe the broodmother cooked to slow down or control her condition. Unlikely, but a girl can dream, right? "In her mind, there had to be a reason for the Terrans' strength, in spite of their apparent physical weakness. Humans are shaped by much more than their genetics. She believed that if she could identify these factors and use them to make us even stronger."

As Izsha continued, Kerrigan's mind began to wander towards the planet. She had never cared that much for science and had no interest in hearing about humans being mind-raped by bug-monsters. Especially not _her_ bug-monsters. Besides, there was something much more interesting down on the surface that caught her attention. Something actively trying to hide from her…

"Sa'ti has had mixed success so far. The infested Terrans she had produced were generally more stable, but their assimilation took much more time and effort. Even so, she has yet to find a reliable way to keep infested sane."

Something strangely familiar…

"There is a high probability that she has continued after our defeat at Char. She has always been passionate…"

"There is a hybrid on the surface!" Kerrigan suddenly interjected to the surprise of her underlings. "I'm sure of it. It's just like the one on Dead Man's Rock."

"Guess that's what happened to our broodmother…" Cain sighed.

"That will complicate things." Izsha muttered before shifting into her 'adjutant mode' "Scanning for anomalies. Scan complete. Warning, Terran forces are attacking the Zerg hive clusters. The attacks are being repulsed but resistance is uncoordinated. Collapse of the hive in the long term seems inevitable. Recommend immediate action." The adjutant shook her head and returned back to normal. Kerrigan briefly wondered if Izsha was aware of her oddities, or if it bothered her at all.

"What about the Terrans?" The queen asked.

"They are moving slowly, using small parties of buggies or drones to lure Zerg into ambushes. Apparently, the Terran commander is unusually cautious and the two armies seem to be in a stalemate. One in favor of the humans, though."

"Can we force them to back off?"

"Not without attacking them directly. The Dominion are using drones built with confiscated resources from the local miners and have fortified the nearby factory complexes. We won't be able to halt the attacks unless you slaughter them to the last. I believe that would be the exact opposite of our objective, correct?"

Kerrigan pondered for a while, hoping to find a way out. "What about the miners themselves?"

"They are lightly guarded, but are far behind the Terran lines. An attack against civilians would be unwise, however."

"But a resource raid… Tiberias, I have a job for you. I want you to pay those little mining towns a visit." The infested Terran looked up and started grinning like an idiot. "No, not that kind of visit." The grin vanished like snow in a supernova. "Stop moping, I want you to develop some skills other than 'beat the thing' and 'shoot the thing'. Go to those mines, and steal as much as you can."

"I suppose you want to minimize casualties?" He asked.

"Well, it wouldn't be much of a challenge if you shot everyone and looted the place afterwards, now would it?" Kerrigan replied, trying to appeal to his pride. "Besides, if you're half as good as you say you are, I'm sure you'll think of something to impress me."

Cain scoffed and immediately walked to the leviathan's sac bay.

"You do realize he'll probably return with a pile of ore so large we'll need another leviathan just to carry it all, right?" Izsha asked, jokingly.

"As long as we don't need a third to carry his ego, I'd call it a success. Now, please take us down to the surface, quietly. I want to poke at Sa'ti's defenses for a while. See if we can find a weak spot."

**Shanty Towns, Mar Sara**

With a roar of thunder, a massive Dominion convoy plowed through the streets. Their mission: visit each of the mining towns in the area and pick as many resources as they could.

"Captain, why did we bring a small army?" A soldier asked as he was driving his APC. "I mean, all we're doing is picking up some minerals from the miners. What are they going to do, attack us with a cordless drill?"

"Private, we are a Dominion military convoy. It is our duty to be prepared for anything. Especially if our mission is as important as ours. Without the resources from the mines, we can't build any drones and vehicles. Without those, the only thing standing between these people and the Zerg is a sorry bunch like yourselves. Now, I'm sure you rather have a Zerg stepping on a mine than one stepping on your dead body, wouldn't you?"

"Well, yeah, but still… Vikings? Tanks? A whole platoon worth of marines? What do you think these fringe-world yokels can throw at us? Battlecruisers?"

"For starters, Molotov cocktails. You know the insurrection that started at Backwater Station, right before the Zerg hit? I don't even want to know how many good boys died of a well-thrown bottle of crappy whiskey. All because that damn pirate Raynor just had to run in and make a mess of things." The captain spat out the rebel's name like it was some sort of curse. "Oh, and how can we forget that those 'yokels' could have guns too, now. No, son, we need to show everyone who is boss in this town. These damn miners have no respect for authority. If we didn't need their ore so damn hard, I'd introduce every last one of these race traitors to some good ol'fashioned Dominion discipline. I'll need a lot of ammo."

The two stayed silent for the rest of the trip. Eventually, they arrived at the first mining town. Unfortunately, the foreman didn't have good news for them:

"What do you mean, stolen?" The captain yelled, angrily.

"Just like I said, captain. Ain't you been listening? Some jackass stole all my damn ore!" The foreman replied.

"You selfish bastards just wanna keep it all to yourself, don't ya! Build up your own little fortune while we're out there defending your ass."

"If you don't believe me, look at the damn depot! Hell, you can search the whole damn town if you have to." The captain followed him to the aforementioned warehouse, only to find a large, empty room…with a very deep, perfectly cylindrical hole in it. "See. Someone dug these here giant hole and nicked all our stuff. The bastard even took my lunch!"

"How do I know you didn't dig it yourself? You dig giant holes for a living!"

"Look, pall, I can't give you things I don't have. You want your minerals, find my damn thief!"

"Oh, I will, and I will be sure to mention this incident in my report." The captain bellowed before storming off. This was not a good way to start the mission. He could have searched the town, but that would only waste time. He still had a long list of other towns to visit.

**Somewhere Below the Surface, Mar Sara**

Tiberias was not a difficult man to please these days. If it moved at high speeds or exploded, he'd generally fall in love with it almost instantly. That said, this new form of nydus worms may be an exception. Like every other Zerg creature in existence, there were many different strains of nydus worms. This particular one was one of Abathur's prototypes: smaller, faster worm that didn't cause an earthquake when it was chewing it's way to the surface. An excellent tool for sneakily inserting, say, a group of drones into a warehouse and stealing everything not nailed to the floor. Unfortunately, it was a significantly tighter fit than the usual variant, thus making Cain feel like he was being squeezed out of a bottle of toothpaste. Another little oversight was the lack of a layer of creep that the normal worms spawned. Without it, you would almost certainly faceplant into the concrete or, like now, slam your head into a crate filled with rocks.

Yes, these new worms definitely needed some work.

He made a mental note of his issues and pushed the thoughts aside, along with his colossal headache. The crates of ore wouldn't steal themselves, after all.

**Shanty Towns, Mar Sara**

"I can't believe it! That was the fifth town to have been 'robbed'! I think we might have another insurrection on our hands."

"With all due respect, Captain, what if the Zerg did it? Those holes kinda looked like they could have been made by one of those nydus worms."

"Son, those holes were way too small. Also, we're miles away from the front lines. No, I think there's treachery in our midst. I don't know where or how, but I'm sure there is. Pull over. The foreman better have some damn goods for us."

For the first time that day, the soldiers arrived in a town hadn't been picked clean yet. The captain's good mood started ebbing away, however, once they arrived at the warehouse. His suit had picked up a noise from behind the door. Someone was in there already.

He told his men to take up positions around the door, before busting it open. To his surprise, he was greeted by a nydus worm, a bunch of drones, a nearly-empty storehouse, and an infested terran with a look on his face not unlike that of a child with his hands caught in a cookie jar. "Umm, hi." It said, looking very guiltily.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" The captain bellowed at the thing that was almost certainly responsible for the terrible day he's been having.

"I'm…accepting your donations…for our charity…yes. Charity."

"What charity?"

"The…umm…the Nydus Worm…Constipation Fund." It stammered. "The Nydus Worm Constipation Fund."

"Bullshit." One of the soldiers said. "Zerg don't get constipated."

"W-what? How dare you call me a liar!" The creature spat back in a ridiculously offended tone. "I've spent the last three years working tirelessly to ease the pain of these poor, sickly creatures, and this is the thanks I get?! You know what, don't say anything. You don't care. You're just a bunch of selfish jerks. I get that. Now, I'm getting out of here as fast as I can. You heartless bastards sicken me." With that, he disappeared into the nydus worm before the worm itself sank into the ground, leaving a very deep, perfectly cylindrical hole in the floor.

All the captain could blurt out was: "WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!"

**Kel-Morian Mining Base, Mar Sara**

The captain had been quiet. Every town they had visited had already been relieved of their mineral stores before they arrived. After every visit, it felt like the temperature in the APC dropped by a few degrees. The soldiers were actually becoming a little worried. Had their superior finally snapped? Worse still, what would their superiors say if they returned empty-handed?

"Foreman Jones, in the name of the Terran Dominion, I hereby confiscate all the mineral resources in this town. Please show us to the storehouse so that we can get a move on."

"I'm sorry, sir, but someone…"

"…stole all your ores?" The captain interrupted.

"Yes, and…"

"…there's a colossal cylindrical hole in hole in your storehouse."

"…Yes, how did you know?"

"Other towns have been raided the same way."

"Oh, then you must have read the note, too."

The captain raised an eyebrow. "What note?" The foreman handed him a messy-looking piece of paper that said: 'The NWCF thanks you for your generous donation.' The soldiers in the APC swore that they heard something snap inside the captain's mind.

"Ah. Okay." the captain muttered, mostly to himself. "I'm going to go back to the barracks, get wasted, and fall asleep. When I wake up, this will all have been a very, very stupid dream. Goodbye, foreman. Goodbye."


	73. Chapter 73

**Badlands, Mar Sara**

With the usual 'splat', Kerrigan's pod landed on the surface of the planet. Immediately, her Zerg started putting up a hive and securing the perimeter, chasing off a few enemy scouts for good measure. Setting up a new hive had become second nature to her; busywork that she barely needed to think about it anymore. A good thing too, because there were plenty of other things that demanded her attention.

The phrase 'rust-covered pisshole' wouldn't even begin to describe what Mar Sara was like. Apart from a few trees and the occasional village, there was nothing here but rocks and dirt as far as the eye could see. The reddish dust got everywhere, even worming its way into her suit. At this rate, the damn thing would rot away even faster than normal. Hopefully, she'd be done with her mission before her uniform completely fell apart. Though she'd probably be just as effective without it thanks to her being a Zerg, Kerrigan had no intention of running around the battlefield naked. Partially because running around in your birthday suit just isn't very ladylike, but more importantly because she really didn't want to know what her birthday suit looked like these days. Judging by the brownish carapace that covered her hands, she probably wouldn't like what she'd see. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

The screech of newly-hatched zerglings filled the air and Kerrigan took the newest additions to the Swarm on patrol. The first strange thing she noticed was that the rogue brood used an unusually large amount of overlords, much larger than her swarm would have needed. Yes, Abathur's research had made her own a bit smarter and more powerful than the older strains, but still. As Kerrigan began shooting them, however, the Zerg they were controlling turned feral and started attacking everything that moved, be that her own troops or their former comrades. Apparently the hybrid's control over their minions was weaker than she thought. A weakness she'd thoroughly exploit with a small flock of mutalisks. Perhaps these hybrids weren't as all-powerful as some seem to think.

The second thing she noticed was the Terran front. Unlike most of the engagements she had seen, the Dominion army did not form a single colossal army that slowly bulldozed its way through the Zerg hive. Instead, the Terrans were split up into tiny, fast moving raiding parties that attacked patrols and smaller hives indiscriminately and retreated before a proper defense could be mounted. Classic guerilla warfare. She found herself wondering why they were doing this. Zerg can reproduce almost indefinitely. Hunting them like this is only a valid strategy if eliminating the Zerg isn't your main objective. Even if you harass the Zerg constantly, you'll only slow them down. The human commander may be cautious, but he probably wasn't stupid. A 'death by a thousand cuts' approach doesn't work if your opponent can regenerate their injuries. Maybe the Terrans were waiting for reinforcements, or buying enough time for the factories to crank out a legion of heavy vehicles. Either way, staying on this planet any longer than necessary probably wasn't a good idea. Not knowing what her enemy's endgame was annoyed Kerrigan greatly. Hopefully Tiberias would be successful in his resource raid. Whatever the humans were planning, a large theft of minerals would slow them down significantly. With luck, the Zerg could have packed up and left by the time they put their plans in motion.

The third thing that surprised her was just how much she was enjoying the hunt, in spite of the fact that she was attacking a hybrid's stronghold head on. Ever since Dead Man's Rock, the hybrids had lost most of their aura of dread, at least to her. The other Zerg still feared them, of course, but Kerrigan herself found it very hard to worry about something she could turn into sausage meat just by thinking about it. Part of her was actually looking forward to flaying that thing alive; a part that she didn't feel like reigning in today. She was, after all, designed by two separate species to be the perfect huntress and killing machine. One could hardly blame her for enjoying the one thing she had been really good at since she was a child: ruining other people's day, often in a very messy fashion.

At least with the hybrids, she didn't have to worry about things like guilt. Hunting a species that's all evil all the time certainly has its perks. Today would be a good day: she'd be making the galaxy a bit safer by cracking some heads in the name of all that is good and holy. Little moments like these almost made being queen of the Zerg worth the trouble.

Almost.

**Brig, White Star, Deep Space**

While Raynor was reciting his story, the captain simply sat down and listened. To his credit, Williams seemed to at least make an effort to follow and believe the commander's story. He paid attention, only interrupting when he needed clarification. When Raynor finished, he almost thought that Williams actually believed him.

"Commander, have you ever considered working for UNN?"

Almost.

Raynor snickered. He should have seen it coming. To the captain's defense, he had trouble believing his own story too. Hybrid doom monsters created by an ancient being belonging to a race that should have gone extinct millennia ago? Yeah, not the most believable story ever told. Hell, had their roles been reversed, Raynor would have been asking what his prisoner had been drinking and if he could have some of it too.

"I suppose that our little story-time was a big waste of breath. Bet you didn't buy a word of it."

"If you hadn't mentioned the part about the Queen of Blades saving us all, I might have believed you. We know that the hybrids exist, and it wouldn't surprise me if one of those 'Xel'Naga' are still around, but letting the worst mass murderess in our history free because a magic crystal says she'll somehow make everything better…"

"Yeah, I'm having trouble believing that too at first. Doesn't mean it ain't true, though."

Williams rubbed his forehead. "Doesn't mean it is, either. If you're trying to convince me of something this crazy, you better have some great evidence backing you up."

"Well, I don't exactly have it on me, now do I, Captain? How could I, you guys practically robbed my of all my worldly possessions. In broad daylight too! It's really mean to do that, you know. Pretty sure there's a law against that somewhere."

"You can sue us later. Right now, I want some hard evidence so that I know for sure you're not just trying to convince me to swap sides or send me on a wild goose chase. If you don't have it, point me to where we can find it."

Unfortunately, Raynor knew that the only ones who could confirm his story weren't exactly easy to find. "The Hyperion would be a good place to start. Zeratul, if you can find him."

Williams sighed disappointedly. "So, I might as well take your word for it, then. Lovely. Well, I have other things to do, so if you'll excuse me, I'll be going now."

"Sure, go ahead. I'm not going anywhere…"

The captain didn't even bother to respond. He left without a word, probably to tell his superior about the latest ramblings of the insane rebel lurking in the brig. Not that Raynor could blame him too much. Still, it would have been nice if he'd be able to convince the good captain. This Williams fellow seemed alright to him. The man reminded him of Matt, but without most of the idealism. Why someone like that would still want to work for the Dominion was beyond him.

With nothing better to do, he returned to what had become his favorite new pastime: imagining new and interesting ways to escape from this place. Needless to say, he wasn't doing very well.

Looks like he'll be staying here for a long time…

**General's Quarters, White Star, Deep Space**

Captain Williams was rather pissed off. He had always respected Commander Raynor, in a way. Indeed, how couldn't he? The rebel managed to stay out of Dominion hands for more than four years, led a successful invasion on the Zerg homeworld, and was probably loved by the people more than anyone else alive. He was also capable of telling the most outrageous stories the captain had ever heard. Williams had heard crazy before, but this was a whole new kind of lunacy. The kind that even the worst hack novelist would consider too unbelievable to put in a story. While Raynor's story did make sense, god help us all, it was still mind-bogglingly implausible. If it were a book, he'd have commended the writer for his ability to dodge plot holes, but criticized him for making a story that is hopelessly contrived and utterly ridiculous. Yet he couldn't shake that niggling feeling that there might be more going on than he wanted to admit. Raynor seemed so sure of himself. This put the captain in a dangerous bind.

Williams marched his way over to the general. One of the (very) few advantages of having a superior officer on board is that you can simply push a difficult decision up the chain of command. This was one of the few situations where he didn't mind letting a general tell him what to do. Even if that general happens to be Morrigan.

"Ah, Captain. I've been expecting you." The general said, throwing the datapad he's been holding onto a pile on his desk. What has he been doing there? "Tell me, what's your impression of our guest in the brig?"

Morrigan must have been watching us, Williams thought. Not that surprising: the general needed to have all the information he could get if he wanted to make an informed decision. "Permission to speak freely, sir? In my professional opinion, Raynor's full of crap. He could be telling the truth, or he could be telling an outrageous story in a rather pathetic attempt to get us to spare his girlfriend. Personally, I'm leaning towards the latter. Judging by the look on your face, however, I think you disagree…"

"Did he tell you where we can find the Hyperion, or this 'Zeratul'?" The general interrupted. Judging by the manner in which he spat out the Protoss' name, he still hadn't forgiven the aliens for their betrayal.

"No, but I don't think he'd be able to tell us, even if he wanted to. The Hyperion has been one of the most elusive ships in the sector and Protoss Dark Templar are supposed to be masters of stealth and subterfuge. I wouldn't bother looking for them unless we have nothing better to do."

"Fair enough. I asked the ghost operatives to read his mind while you were talking to him and what they discovered was…worrying." The general seemed visibly bothered and tried to find the proper words for this. "Let me put it like this: Raynor didn't lie to you. Every word he's said is, at least in Raynor's mind, the truth."

"Just because he believes something is true doesn't mean that it is. He could be crazy. Or maybe the Zerg really have done something to him…" Williams seriously hoped it wasn't the last, and not just for Raynor's sake. With a man like Morrigan, anything that vindicated his paranoia was, to say the least, dangerous. If Raynor really was infested, it would only make him more suspicious of the people they worked with.

"Zerg intervention and insanity are possibilities, but I have a feeling that there may be more going on. Something isn't right and I can't put my finger on what it is…"

"Sir?"

"These hybrids aren't making much sense, the emperor has been lying to me for no apparent reason, and now this…" The general pointed to the pile of datapads. "Someone's managed to infiltrate Umoja's spy network and now the Protectorate is running scared. Now, who could possibly have the tech to pull something like that off? So many things are happening that shouldn't have…if this is all related…Needless to say, I don't think this is a coincidence."

It was only now that Williams realized just how tired the general looked. With so many things going wrong at once, who could blame him? "Sir, when was the last time you slept?"

Morrigan glared back, visibly annoyed. "Not to sound too cliché, but I'll sleep when I'm dead. The way things are going, that might be sooner than later. Get to the bridge. Tell the helmsman to set course towards Umojan territory. If Raynor can't provide us with additional intel, we'll have to get it somewhere else. I want to know what the Protectorate is thinking. Maybe they have clues that we don't…"

Before the captain left, however, he remembered one little thing that he needed to ask. "Just out of curiosity, how do you know anything about the Umojans and their spy network?"

The general smiled. "Contacts made during my desk job. There are plenty of people willing to work with me in spite of my reputation. People that owe me favors, and the likes. People I trust more than our beloved emperor…"

"You really hate him, do you?" Williams asked.

"I don't hate him, I just don't trust him. He's a nakedly self-serving politician, and you know that. Our job is to destroy the enemies of the people. His job is cultivating power. If he's been lying to us about the hybrids, who knows what else he's been lying about. If you want good intel, you need to get it from someone you can trust. Now, off to the bridge with you. Dismissed."


	74. Chapter 74

**Badlands, Mar Sara**

Kerrigan was getting frustrated. She had hoped to be off-planet by now, but the hybrid's army had put up a much better fight than she had hoped. If this went on much longer, there wouldn't even be much of a brood to reclaim. While the queen didn't mind having some extra practice, her opponents had stopped being real threats and started becoming irritations. The hybrid seemed content in holing up in the well-entrenched tunnel network and letting the loyalists come to it. Maybe it thought the Terrans would end up doing its dirty work? Maybe it was genuinely afraid of her? Whatever it was, it had made Kerrigan's job annoyingly difficult. Dislodging anyone from a heavily entrenched position always was.

Of course, the humans were another kind of nuisance altogether. They seemed to have the uncanny ability of sensing when the Zerg would be too preoccupied to deal with a tiny group of attack buggies running around and setting hives on fire. Turns out: drones don't react well to napalm. While not particularly dangerous, the attacks were absolutely infuriating. Kerrigan had to fight the urge to attack the root of this problem several times already. She couldn't, of course, but that didn't stop the darker part of her mind from thinking up ways to gruesomely dismember the pesky little space monkeys. For now, however, she had to settle for shooting their buggies instead.

The newest little toy Abathur managed to salvage from the Swarm's generic 'archive' proved invaluable in stopping the Terran raids dead in their tracks. The Infestor, as it was called, was basically a giant, shambling nightmare factory on legs, capable of covering areas in caustic fungal goo and spitting out mind-controlling parasites. Lovely. To make it even better, the creatures also had the ability to carry infested marines around and 'deploy' them onto the battlefield. That probably was the reason why they were called infestors in the first place. Just thinking about these things too much literally made Kerrigan sick in her stomach. After ordering that every last one of the ex-human husks were to be put out of their misery, however, sheer pragmatism took over and the Queen found the walking puss-bags very useful. The fungus ate through both neosteel and Zerg carapace with frightening ease, making the conflict on both fronts much easier. Eventually, the humans just stopped trying altogether and withdrew. It was nice to know that at least someone in the Terran Dominion had enough sense to abandon a lost cause.

Then again, it could also have something to do with the ever-growing pile of mineral ores that 'mysteriously' appeared in the middle of her hive clusters. Maybe the Terrans had run out of resources before they ran out of stupidity…

With the human threat largely neutralized, the hybrid and his enslaved lackeys still remained. Dug in, well fortified and with almost complete knowledge of the terrain, the enemy had the advantage here. Kerrigan didn't mind that much; it would make grinding the hybrid into pulp even more fun. Something about a dish best served cold… Regardless, she'd have to find a way into the main hive. Not easy, considering that the place was nearly as well-defended as her primary hive on Char ever was. That said, Mar Sara had a lovely maze-like natural cave system underneath the surface. One that she planned on abusing to its fullest potential.

Assuming, of course, that she didn't get horribly lost…

**Somewhere Beyond the Koprulu Sector**

Duran's legs were shaking as he teleported into bridge of his master's vessel. His plan, to capture Jim Raynor and use him as bait for the Queen of Blades, had failed miserably. As such, he had been traveling the sector, hoping that helping a dozen smaller projects would earn him forgiveness for his failure. The Ancient One needed useful servants and did not suffer the presence of those that couldn't earn their keep.

He bowed down before his master, but before he could speak, the being said: "You need not fear my wrath, Duran, at least not this day. If I struck down everyone who has failed me over the millennia, I would have no servants left. You may rise."

"Thank you, my lord. I humbly beg your forgiveness for my earlier failure."

The Ancient calmly replied: "You assume your adventure to Dead Man's Rock was unsuccessful…"

"But…it was, Lord." Duran replied, confused. "Jim Raynor escaped our grasp and the Queen of Blades still lives."

"As expected." His master interjected. The statement was uttered calmly, as something that was self-evident.

"'Expected'? If you knew I was doomed to failure, why did you allow me to continue?"

"Success is not always measured by your ability to accomplish your intended goal, little Duran. Sometimes, success is a surprising side-effect, an unanticipated consequence. Many of the greatest inventions in the history of the universe were the product of an individual inventively using a mistake. This is no different."

"And what was my mistake?" Duran asked.

"You assumed that the human Raynor would not be able to see through your deception in time. He has proven to be far more resourceful than anticipated."

"He only made us because…"

"…he had persuaded one of my children to work for him." The Ancient interceded, calmly, but with a hidden fury underlining his words. "How he succeeded, I do not know. It is concerning that such a weak creature could convince one of my own to serve him. I was correct in assuming that the Terrans were a greater threat to my plans than the first- or the second-born could ever be."

"With respect, lord, he is only one man, currently being held prisoner by the Terran Dominion and will probably be executed sooner rather than later. While I know better than most that a single person, in the right place, can do a lot of damage, even he can only have so much influence on the fate of an entire sector."

"Indeed, but it is not Raynor himself that concerns me. His behavior, while not typical of his species, and the recent events surrounding him have proven yet again that humans are highly resourceful, as well as pragmatic enough to make seemingly impossible alliances with others. If there is any single race that can convince the others to put aside their differences and unite against a common foe, it is the humans. They know much of making war, but are paradoxically masters of making peace as well. Their intervention could become problematic if they are allowed to roam unchecked, which brings me back to your second mistake."

"That the Terrans wouldn't be willing to thrown their entire fleet at the Zerg if the opportunity presented itself? I admit, their arrival made recapturing Raynor impossible."

"True, but their insatiable thirst for their mockery of justice left them exposed. The Queen left herself exposed, forcing the humans and the Zerg to destroy each other. With the Terran fleets decimated, Humanity will have no means to protect itself when the inevitable comes." Duran seemed quite surprised. Shocked, even, that he hadn't seen it coming himself. Of course, this was all part of the plan, in some way or another. His master would never have allowed him to do anything unless a profitable outcome was certain. "Worry not about Raynor. Whatever part he may play in the future, it will ultimately be in my favor."

"And the Queen of Blades?"

"She will meet her end, in due time. As for now, she seems more concerned with her own selfish desires than the needs of the sector. The Zerg are still a threat, but a manageable one."

"Then…what will become of me?"

"You are a pawn, Duran, as you always have been. A useful pawn, but a pawn nonetheless. You will serve my designs one way or another, just like every other piece in this grand taperstry I have constructed. Continue with your work and do not fret about our enemies. They are lost already."

**Tunnels, Mar Sara**

Kerrigan was lost.

It was embarrassing, stupid, and made her even more annoyed than she already was. Nevertheless, Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of the Zerg Swarm and absolute ruler of one of the greatest military powers in the sector, couldn't find her way through a god-damn tunnel system.

Making matters worse were the bloody turrets. Somehow, either Sa'ti or the hybrid managed to move in and activate Terran machinegun turrets to seal off the tunnels. In spite of Izsha's assurances that the turrets were programmed only to shoot at humans (and thus completely harmless to her own forces), Kerrigan couldn't help but feel really, really suspicious as she walked past the silent guardians. Maybe it was just her ghost training that made her wary of automated defenses, but she was sure these things would end up shooting her at some point. If the enemy figured out how to reprogram them, turning them on her troops shouldn't be that much of a stretch.

In her defense, though, she didn't have advanced surveying equipment to find her way. Being a little suspicious was probably a good precaution. Izsha had managed to obtain a few maps of the area from the Terran networks, but they weren't exactly reliable. Most of them were old surveys taken many years ago. Long before the Protoss came around and decided it would be fun to carve their initials into the planet's crust with their fancy giant lasers. Blasted aliens. As such, nearly all of the paths that Kerrigan took either led to a cave-in or an ambush followed by a cave-in. A dead end either way.

So much for her sneak attack. At this rate, her forces on the surface would have killed the hybrid before she could. It would complete her mission, sure, but she'd like to do it herself. Especially if that meant that she didn't have to butcher the very brood she's trying to take over. If they kept ambushing her, however, there wouldn't be much of a choice. As much as Kerrigan wanted to spare her enemies, she had no trouble killing them if they got in her way. A fact that a certain fast-moving shape on the edge of her vision needed to be reminded of.

With practiced grace, the queen ran towards it. Probably realizing that its cover was blown, it dashed away as fast as it could. Not fast enough to outrun a bullet, though. Kerrigan aimed for what she thought was its legs and pulled the trigger. She knew she hit her mark when the creature went down and started yelling something that sounded suspiciously like a tidal wave of Terran curses.

"WHAT DID I DO?!" It yelled in a voice that sounded suspiciously like a woman's. "WHAT THE HELL DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!" Upon closer inspection, Kerrigan realized that it _was_ coming from a woman. Or at least something that used to be a woman. It was difficult to see all the details in a dark tunnel, but it was obvious that her quarry was an infested Terran. The glowing, orange eyes and the carapace-like suit she was 'wearing' made it obvious.

"Well, you snuck up on me, then tried to run away when I made you. I've been ambushed a lot the past few hours. Forgive me for being a little paranoid. Besides, the bullet barely grazed you. It'll heal."

"It still hurts, you bitch!" The girl snapped back. She had calmed a little, but was still surprisingly angry. In Kerrigan's experience, most Zerg didn't take offense to relatively minor injuries. Sign of weakness, or something like that. Why would this one? "And I wasn't even armed! Even if I was, what am I supposed to know about guns? Seriously, if you can make a shot like that, then you know I'm no threat to you whatsoever."

"You're a Zerg. It's not like you need…"

"I'm not a Zerg, dammit!" The girl interrupted. "I'm…I'm…" She stammered, looking at her mutated body. "I'm _me,_ okay. Now, put that stupid gun away and let me go. I'm tired of you people and the goddamn creepy voices that keep popping up in my head!"

Kerrigan didn't really know what to say. All the other Zerg she encountered either fell in line or tried to kill her. She'd never encountered that acted so, well, angrily. Not to mention that none of the Zerg she'd met thus far had ever denied being a Zerg. Apart from herself, of course… Hoping that human psychology would still be applicable, she tried calming the girl down. "Look, I'm sorry I shot you. Now, I'm Kerrigan. Who are you and what are you doing down here?"

"Don't baby me. I don't trust you, and I sure as hell don't like you. I've seen what Zerg do to people that…wait, did you say 'Kerrigan'? You're the Queen of Blades? I thought you'd be taller…and less human…"

Kerrigan suppressed the urge to snicker. It was probably the first time that anyone has ever accused her of being too human. It didn't feel as good as she thought it would, though. The way the girl said it, it almost felt like an insult. "Have we met?"

"Well, your voice had been booming in my head up until a few weeks ago. Or at least it kinda sounded like you. Are you sure you are the person I think you are? 'Cause you sound a bit off, if that makes any sense. I'm Lilith, by the way."

In a roundabout way, this Lilith had just given her the best news she's heard in weeks. "I'm not the Queen of Blades anymore. It's…complicated. I'm still in charge of the Zerg, however."

"Judging by all the noise and commotion, I'm guessing the big, pompous alien with the creepy voice that moved in a while back disagrees. Or at least I think so. With all the voices I'm hearing lately, I'm not really a reliable source anymore." _That_ piqued Kerrigan's interest. The phrase 'big, pompous alien with the creepy voice' seemed to describe the hybrid she was hunting almost perfectly. "Anyway, it's been nice chatting with you, but I'm getting out of here."

"Not so fast. I'd like to have a chat with our alien friend. You know the tunnels, right? Show me where he is." Kerrigan needed the help. God knows, she would probably go insane before she got out of here without it.

"What?! No! I'm not going back there! That thing has been controlling me like a dog on a leash. Hell, you've all been treating me like I'm just a pet. Forget it. I don't owe you, or anyone else, anything. I don't know how I got free, but I'm not wasting this opportunity to find out."

Kerrigan was perplexed, to say the least. Zerg have a strict hierarchy, one that was literally an instinct that an individual Zerg shouldn't be able to ignore. Lilith had no psychic power beyond what all Zerg naturally have, so Kerrigan was obviously the more powerful of the two. She should have obeyed without question. The fact that she didn't pissed the Zerg's ruler off a lot more than it probably should. Calmly, but firmly, she said: "Lilith, I'm ordering you to show me the way to the hybrid."

The girl's face turned from startled, to pained, to angry over the course of seconds. She was torn between her (understandable) desire to get herself to safety and the instinct to obey her superiors. "Dammit…" she muttered, softly, as her programming literally began to tear down and override her free-will.

Reluctantly, the girl showed her new boss the way to the hybrid's lair.


	75. Chapter 75

**Tunnels, Mar Sara**

A hydralisk's chest tore open as a group of broodlings chewed their way out of their host. Another resource wasted, Kerrigan thought. How many more before Sa'ti's brood is nothing more than a dried-out hatchery and some dirt?

With the current ambush defeated. Kerrigan called Lilith back with a mental order. The girl had the annoying habit of running off when bullets started flying. Not that surprising, considering her viability in combat. Or better said, her utter lack thereof.

Although it wouldn't be apparent to a casual observer, Lilith looked remarkably fragile by Zerg standards. She didn't have any visible blades attached to her body, her claws were tiny, she lacked nerve chords, and her carapace looked so thin it could have been mistaken for a latex costume. The girl would have been lucky if she could beat an unarmed man, let alone a marine in power armor. She just seemed so…unfinished, at least to the Zerg-aligned part of Kerrigan's mind. Every Zerg was a strong fighter in their own right. Even the lowliest of creatures could shrug off small-arms fire and rip a man apart in seconds. This one… Kerrigan couldn't think of any reason why Sa'ti hadn't put some armor on the poor girl, even if the only reason was to cover up her dignity…

"You can lower your gun now, boss." Lilith said, pointing to the rifle that Kerrigan, without realizing it, had trained on the gun turrets. "The turrets won't shoot anything that has a hint of Zerg in it."

"You sure?"

"Of course I am." The girl replied, somewhat insulted. "Who do you think programmed them?"

"You can hack military hardware?" Hacking, while not an uncommon skill in the Koprulu Sector, wasn't easy, especially when military hardware is involved.

"Well, I did used to work for an IT company in Mar Sara City before our mutual 'friend' found me and, well, ruined my life. Besides, it's Morian hardware. Cheap bastards skimp on everything. Stupid thing didn't even have a proper firewall."

"I see."

Talking to Lilith wasn't an exercise Kerrigan enjoyed. She did as she was told, sure, but nothing more. Prying conversation out of someone who really, really doesn't like you gets tiresome really quickly. Eventually, the girl showed the Zerg the way, but she did it without any enthusiasm. In fact, glimpses into her mind revealed that she actually hoped one of the ambushers would take Kerrigan's head off so she could continue her plan of getting the hell out of here. In a way, it was quite insulting. While Kerrigan knew that she would one day eat her words, she was almost starting to miss Cain and his idiotic bantering.

For some reason, loyalty just didn't come naturally to Lilith and it pissed Kerrigan off. It was strange that something so petty could annoy her so much. After all, she hadn't earned the girl's loyalty, nor did she really need it for the task at hand. Outright rebellion was impossible anyway; the Queen had become powerful enough to force obedience if it was necessary. Still, Lilith's small acts of defiance were beginning to actually offend her. Kerrigan was becoming a little worried herself. Since when was she such a control freak?

Maybe some she subconsciously saw dissidence in her underlings as a weakness on her part. Maybe she'd become so used to unquestioned obedience that the very thought of not having things her way had become offensive. Or maybe it was Lilith's childish method of showing her dissent.

On reflection, Kerrigan realized that she should have been grateful the Zerg had been obeying her at all. If the Swarm had been a human army, they probably wouldn't. As a lieutenant in the Sons of Korhal, people that were technically her subordinates had given her orders all the time, and usually for the better. She was a commando, not a captain or a general. While she had a talent for strategy (one the Queen of Blades had used frighteningly well), she never had that strange presence that allowed men like Jim to convince people to follow them to hell and back. As such, the men were usually led by more competent commanders like Raynor and that magistrate whose name history seems to have forgotten. It wasn't so much that she was a terrible commander: the others were just much better at it than she was.

It's not like Kerrigan had the moral high-ground either. She practically mind-raped the poor girl into obeying her, after all. Maybe she should apologize at some point. Then again, it would probably be seen as a sign of weakness by the other Zerg. Just letting her run off would probably the best option.

Run off to where, though? "Lilith, you said you wanted to get out of here, right? Have you ever thought about where you'd go afterwards?"

The girl stopped walking and sunk into her thoughts for a while. "I…don't really know. I guess I should go back to the city and find a doctor. I mean, the Zerg have been around for over four years now, right? I'm sure someone's found a cure for my little problem by now."

Kerrigan sighed. Oh, how she wished that she could share the girl's hope. "If there is, I'm sure it would have been all over the news by now…"

"Even if there isn't, I can deal with wearing long-sleeved shirts and make-up for the rest of my life. My father always said that anything is possible if you tried hard enough. Well, I'm gonna prove him right!" Lilith said, full of conviction. Her confidence would have been inspiring if it wasn't so horribly misplaced.

"Lilith, even if that's possible, you'll probably end up getting shot by the Dominion soldiers. You know, the same guys you probably stole the turrets from?" Kerrigan surprised herself with her new-found pessimism. After all, didn't she want the exact same thing after she found out about her own condition. Didn't she still want it?

"Well, I'll just…Oh, what's it to you anyway?!" The girl brought up a good question. What could Kerrigan possibly have to gain from talking to someone who pretty much hated her from the moment they met? Then again, the same could be said about Lassara.

"Maybe I'm just a caring person?"

"I remember Sa'ti saying that right after I was captured. Next thing I know, I wake up with this damn cat-suit welded to my body and a voice in my head trying to convince me it's all for my own good. What are you going to do to me, graft a pair of wings into my spine and tell me to steal people's souls?"

Kerrigan decided to stay quiet after that. While she didn't have any plans for the girl (and certainly not one that would make her infestation worse), Lilith could hardly be blamed for thinking otherwise. Zerg weren't known for leaving things half-done. Most of them would probably finish what Sa'ti had started. But then again, Kerrigan wasn't most Zerg. Not that Lilith could know that.

Eventually, the loyalists could literally see the light at the end of the tunnel. As promised, Lilith had led them to the surface, only a few hundred meters away from the hybrid's position if Kerrigan's mental radar was correct. To her delight, she could already hear the sounds of battle in the distance. Her troops were getting closer. It was always nice to have a distraction when trying to sneak in.

Lilith looked at her with the closest thing to 'puppy eyes' anatomically possible. Poor thing was probably hoping that Kerrigan would set her free, now that they're back on the surface. The Queen couldn't refuse. She had every right to keep her asset, being the Swarm's ruler, but it just felt wrong. Then again, letting Lilith go might not be the smartest thing to do. In all likelihood, she'd be captured by the Dominion. While she didn't know enough about Kerrigan's army to be of any real threat, the humans were surely going to kill her, or worse.

In the end, though, humanity won over pragmatism and Kerrigan decided to let her go. Lilith immediately smiled, thanking her before running back into the tunnel. Quietly, Kerrigan hoped that she'd find what she was looking for. It was unlikely, but a slim chance is always better than none.

With that out of the way, Kerrigan could fully commit herself to the removal of the hybrid. Reaching out with her mind, she could feel the turmoil around her. She liked what she 'saw'. Her troops had been prioritizing the enemy overlords and it was beginning to show. The enemy's hold over its own forces was dwindling rapidly. The defense had become increasingly chaotic, with Zerg going feral left, right, and center as the hybrid was forced to let go of some of them just to maintain its control over the others. 'Adopting' these 'abandoned' Zerg was child's play.

Oh, how Kerrigan wished she could see the look on the creature's face as its own minions turned around and began attacking their former comrades. It must be agonizing for a species genetically programmed with chronic case of hubris to be slowly, but surely bested by a 'lesser' being. She could practically smell the rage, anger, and fear flowing from the creature's mind like a river. Part of her wanted to taunt the creature, let it simmer in its own emotions for her amusement, but decided to leave it be. Surprising it would be much more fun. After all, Kerrigan really wanted to know if these things were even capable of feeling fear.

She didn't have to wait long to find out. When she found the hybrid, it was already locked in combat with the broodmother. Apparently Sa'ti managed to escape the creature's mental control and was exacting a just revenge against it, brutally lashing out with everything she had. The hybrid was clearly winning, though, but not before it took some serious injuries. Eventually, it struck the broodmother down, beating her to within an inch of her life. Kerrigan swore. She didn't like having her hand forced, but if Sa'ti died, she would have come all this way for nothing. The queen calmed herself, pulled out her rifle, exhaled, and pulled the trigger, hitting the hybrid square in the shoulder. She pulled the trigger again and again, until the creature at last fell on its knees, incapacitated and screaming with impotent rage. Kerrigan could have ended it then and there, but decided that this one deserved special treatment. The hybrid had tried to take a part of _her_ Swarm for itself. That couldn't go unpunished.

Kerrigan holstered her weapon and calmly walked towards her quarry with a predatory smile on her lips. She knew the creature was beaten; the extent of its injuries would have made it difficult to think, let alone force the obedience of an entire brood. Gently, she caressed the creature's skull…before shredding its mind with her thoughts. Before it died, it experienced a single moment of pure, unadulterated terror.

Totally worth the effort.

Sa'ti's broken body still lay in the corner. Thankfully, the broodmother wasn't dead. It was close, but Kerrigan figured she'd be alright after some recuperation. Mission complete.

**Capitol, Reagan City, Umoja**

"But Minister, the rich farm-land near the Sarengo Canyon is completely unused. We can't…"

"It's unused because it's crawling with drifters and other scum, Jasper. Headlines like '20% more deaths in the Security Force' aren't exactly helpful during an election year. You know that. Your job as Secretary of Development and Colonization gives you plenty of access to that kind of information. I'd like a clear win over my opponent this time, if you wouldn't mind."

"But think of the economic benefits! We could…"

"…Increase the production of framberries by X%, I know. The answer is still no. Sarengo Canyon stays off limits until order has been restored. However long that may take. We've got more pressing matters than nutri-bars."

"As you say, Minister Jorgensen."

Thankfully, the secretary left. Minister Jorgensen always found it difficult to work with people that only saw the world in numbers and figures, forgetting or marginalizing the human cost of their programs. Umoja's chief elected official knew that men like that were sometimes necessary, but they were still frustrating to deal with. Economic and technological advancement is invaluable for a nation that is dwarfed by its neighbors, but not at the cost of its soul.

Anyway, the minister thought he'd earned a rest. "Claire, I'll be off to lunch." He said to his assistant over the comms.

"I'm sorry, sir, but your lunch has been canceled. Along with the rest of your afternoon appointments."

"What? By whom?"

"By me, Minister." Another voice spoke. Mere seconds later, the door opened and a rough-looking man entered, sitting himself down on a nearby chair.

"Why, Zach, what a lovely surprise." Jorgensen said, mockingly. While he did like the man, a senior field agent of the Shadowguard rarely made social visits. Seeing one is usually a bad omen. "Please, come in. Sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Oh, wait, you already have. Seriously, can't a poor head of state be left alone every once in a while? Oh, never mind. What is it this time? Did your pet prince finally call you back about that damn Dominion cruiser hanging around in our space? Or are you still sour about that little leak in Intelligence you missed?"

To the man's credit, Zach kept a completely straight face even after the minister's jab. "I haven't heard from Valerian Mengsk yet, sir, but if I had, I wouldn't have taken your entire afternoon. No, I'm here because a week ago one of our deep-space monitoring satellites went offline."

"That's it? Those things break all the time. It's the downside of a sector-wide espionage system. You don't need to bother me about it."

"Actually, sir, I think you want to see this." Zach pulled a datapad out of his pocket and tossed it on the Minister's desk.

As Jorgensen read through it, his face turned pale. "Who…How…Seventeen?! They took out seventeen in one week?! How?"

"You're missing the point, sir. Look at the positions. Look at where their headed…"

The minister noticed, to his horror, that the satellites formed a near-perfect line with a very clear destination. "How long until it gets there?"

"Weeks. Two, maybe three, if it doesn't speed up. My colleagues are alerting the Council. We're arranging a meeting at two in the conference room. Just wanted to let you know."

"Of course. I'll be there." As the Shadowguard left, the minister poured himself a shot of brandy and downed it in a single gulp. "So much for a normal term…" He muttered.


	76. Chapter 76

**Hive Cluster, Mar Sara**

With the worst of the fighting finished, Kerrigan could allow herself to relax again. The tension in her body began to fade and her mind slowly cleared itself. A welcome break from the stress of the rest of the day. It was one of the few pleasures she had left in her new life, not counting those that involved brutally murdering something.

Speaking of brutal murder, she realized that she may have been a little overzealous in her desire for retribution earlier. Though it was unlikely that anyone would shed tears over the death of the hybrid, the method she used was rather…excessive. There would have been simpler methods than boiling its brain out of its skull. Then again, it was only a hybrid. You could complain about the creature's fate all you want, but it's unlikely that it'd return the favor. Why should she care about something that doesn't care about her?

Sitting down in the hot, Mar Saran sun, Kerrigan began giving the usual evacuation orders: bring up the leviathan, pack everything that could be moved, find some lesser queens to keep watch over Sa'ti, etcetera. The usual. She was just about to enjoy herself when she noticed a hulking brute with a terrible sense of humor casting a shade over her.

"You're in my sunlight, Tiberias."

"Oh, sorry about that." Cain replied apologetically while moving aside.

"Report."

"We managed to 'acquire' the resources you requested from the Terrans. Poor bastards didn't know what hit them. Didn't have to kill a single man."

"So, I guess you're responsible for that ever-growing pile of minerals in my hive." The queen joked. "Do you have any idea how much effort it took to get rid of it? Honestly, my cleaning bill is through the roof!"

Tiberias snickered. "Glad to see my efforts are being appreciated. I suppose the humans stopped attacking soon afterwards and that the rest of the mission was a success?"

"If they hadn't, I wouldn't be in such a good mood, now, would I?"

"Guess not, my lady. Speaking of women in a bad mood; the girl sitting just outside this hive, the one with apocalyptic despair written on her face? Is she one of ours?"

Of course, Lilith. It really shouldn't have been that much of a surprise. Telling her the truth might not have been the nicest thing Kerrigan has ever done. Poor thing must have been devastated when reality finally managed to penetrate that unbelievably thick skull of hers. Kerrigan couldn't leave her like that. Technically, the girl had made the choice to run away herself, but still. Even though she'd probably been captured before the battle for Char, Kerrigan felt at least a little responsible for what happened to her regardless.

"That's probably Lilith. Former human that Sa'ti had 'brought into the fold' recently. She didn't seem to like me very much and wasn't exactly accepting of her 'condition'. I let her go after she showed me a way through the tunnels. I won't force her to follow me if she won't come along willingly." Her answer was a little colder than she would have liked, but she _was_ talking to another Zerg. Showing weakness would still be a bad idea.

"You gave her a choice between staying or leaving, huh?" Kerrigan nodded in response. "Does she realize that staying here probably means that she'll get dissected in a Dominion lab?" Tiberias actually seemed a little upset. Then again, he did seem to have a deep-seeded hatred for Dominion labs.

"I think she just did…" The queen replied, solemnly. "You know I don't want to force her to serve me. Still, leaving her behind isn't very nice either…"

"Maybe you should talk to her. Convince her that being a human lab rat isn't exactly fun. Even if we can't find a use for her, no good could possibly come from giving the Dominion more information on us."

Someone should talk to her. She shouldn't be left here to die. Of course, that someone didn't have to be Kerrigan. "Why don't you talk to her?"

"Me?!" Tai asked, incredulously.

"Yes, you. You know what she's going through better than anyone else alive. You'd be perfect!"

"My lady, interaction with other people isn't exactly my thing unless there's a gun involved. I really don't think this is a good idea."

"C'mon, you're a master of diplomacy. You've said it yourself. Surely convincing a young woman should be well within your abilities." Kerrigan said with a smile on her face. Taking a man with a big ego and beating him to death with it never gets old.

Tiberias swore something unintelligible and set off. Sure, it was mean, but Cain could take as good as he could give. In all seriousness, though, letting Tai handle this was probably the right choice. Kerrigan's situation had been very different: she still has a clear-cut goal in mind and someone who'd love her no matter what color her eyes glowed. If Lilith had either of those things, she probably wouldn't be here anymore. As much as Kerrigan didn't want to acknowledge it, joining the Swarm would be the girl's best chance of survival. Cain would probably get through to her. He might even re-learn a lesson in humanity that he might have forgotten over the years.

Nah, that'd be pushing it…

**Outside the Hive Cluster, Mar Sara**

'Master of Diplomacy' she said. 'Well within your abilities' she said. Tiberias wondered if the queen had forgotten that talking people into anything is really difficult when your conversational partner thinks you're a monster. Now, he had to convince someone that joining the Zerg was a great idea. The last time he tried that, Morrigan ended up shooting him and chasing him halfway across Torus.

If this 'Lilith' hadn't accepted the fact that she was a Zerg yet, it would probably mean that she had been with the Swarm for no more than a couple of weeks. Her appearance seemed to confirm this: she looked so human, it was actually rather unnerving. If the queen had told him that she was a human wearing some make-up, he'd believe it without a second thought. That would have made things a lot simpler. Unfortunately, she wasn't, and now it was up to Tiberias Cain, 'Master Psychologist', to stop her from committing suicide-by-mad-scientist.

Lovely.

The memories of his first few months with the Zerg weren't exactly fond ones. His very first act after his 'birth' was to scream like a girl and running away. Or trying to anyway. Za'gara had been cautious; making sure that there was no way for him to fight or escape. In truth, her precautions were largely unnecessary; Cain didn't have the strength of will break free of her control anyway. Even if he did, a flash of the broodmother's razor-sharp talons was more than enough to make him think twice about disobeying her. After their initial introduction, Za'gara started working him like a slave, trying hard to desensitize him to violence and turn him into a useful asset to the Swarm. While Cain absolutely hated her methods, it was difficult to argue with the results. The fact that he was still alive today was a testament to that.

Still, the hardest lesson of all had been the one he essentially had to teach himself: accepting the fact that he was no longer human. While Za'gara and others had reminded him of it constantly, for months it had gone in one ear and out the next. Some instinctual part of his mind still clung to that false hope for a long time. If Lilith had to come along, he hoped that she'd be less problematic than he had been. Cain didn't think that he was quite patient enough to be a broodmother…

Lilith was still sitting at the exact same spot that he found her an hour ago, looking downright miserable and seemingly oblivious to his presence. Not that surprising; a trauma like the kind she's been through doesn't go away in a few minutes. Still, Tiberias had to do something. He guessed that the most sensible thing to do right now was to sit right next to her. The girl didn't budge an inch in spite of the mass that just landed right next to her. Great, Cain thought. Now he had to make the first move.

Before he could say anything, however, Lilith began to speak. "It's funny, you know. Before you guys invaded, I was part of the Mar Sara militia. Joined right after Marshall Raynor made his big come-back. Yep, that was me, a brave little girl fighting for freedom and justice and all that's righteous and good and all that crap. I was ready to fight and die for the cause. Then, on my very first patrol, Zerg start raining from the sky. Next thing I knew, my patrol was ripped apart and I got dragged off to the nearest hive. All I wanted to do was live free from oppression and I get turned into a monster for my trouble. It almost sounds like a bad fairy tale. God, they didn't cover this in basic training…" Lilith laughed humorlessly before turning to Cain. "Aren't you supposed to say something now?"

"Well, life sucks and then you die. That's the way it's always been, and that's the way it always will be…" Almost immediately, Tiberias regretted those words. He was supposed to make her feel better, not dig a deeper hole for her anguish to sink into!

"Aren't you a beacon of optimism…" Lilith deadpanned. "Still, there is a cure for this, right? I mean, the Dominion is probably just hiding this from the people to make the Zerg seem even scarier, right? There's got to be…"

Trying to shake the poor girl out of her delusions, Tiberias gently put his finger on her lips to silence her. "Look, I know you don't want to believe what has happened to you. It's like you're in some ridiculous nightmare that you can't wake up from. Like some lunatic performed experimental brain surgery on you and accidently stuck your mind in the wrong body. It doesn't change anything. That's the fun thing about facts, Lilith. They're true even if you want to believe the opposite with every fiber of your being. Listen to me very, very closely. You. Are. Not. Human. Anymore." Lilith tried to object, but Cain silenced her again. "No, shush. When was the last time you looked at yourself in a mirror? I bet it was right before your first patrol, admiring your badass power-armor, isn't it? Well, a lot has changed since then. I've never met you before, but I'm pretty sure that your eyes weren't glowing orange and your face wasn't a shade of green. I know you don't want to accept it, believe me, I do, but that doesn't change the fact that you are now one of us, and, believe it or not, we take care of our own."

"You want to ask me to come back, don't you? Force me to become what I was 'destined to be'?" The girl visibly fought back the urge to cry. The look on her face was painfully obvious. It was the look of a person who's realized that her world was collapsing in upon itself. For some reason, Cain felt a pang of sympathy for her, in spite of the obvious display of weakness. He put his arm around her shoulder, hoping that a human sign of affection would help somehow.

"I'm not ordering you to come back, and neither will the queen. I'm not even going to ask. I'm only going to tell you what your available options are, if you want to take them. We'll be leaving soon. You can stay here, if you want. We can part ways and we never have to see each other again. But if you want to join us, you'll be welcome. The pay sucks and the hours are long, but you get to see the galaxy and crack Dominion heads while you're at it."

"And when the Dominion is defeated, what will happen? The Queen of Blades didn't seem to care on whose side we were on…"

"The Queen of Blades is dead. I don't know what our new monarch has planned, but she seems to try to avoid fighting humans for the time being, especially civilians." Tiberias left out the bit about the Raiders being their 'allies'. She probably wouldn't believe it anyway. Hell, he could hardly believe it himself… "If the old queen was still around, would she have given you the option to choose?"

"For some reason, I still don't get the feeling like I'm given much of a choice. Slavery or torture, they're both lousy."

"As opposed to slavery or joining a rebellion followed by getting tortured? From where I stand, that's basically what human life is like under the Dominion." That statement earned him a nasty glare. "I'm just saying, humans aren't perfect either. Like it or not, when it really comes down to it, we're not that different from each other."

Lilith lowered her head and kept silent for a while. "You know what scares me the most?" She eventually said. "Some part of me thinks you're right. It's getting into my head isn't it? Is this how you break the wills of your new recruits?" Lilith asked, somberly. "Don't answer that, I don't want to know anymore. Just…hold me for a while, will you?"

Tiberias complied, figuring that it would be the best course of action. While he wasn't an expert on the matter by any stretch of the imagination, the girl didn't seem nearly as depressed as before. He must have said something right…


	77. Chapter 77

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

Kerrigan was glad to be away from Mar Sara again. While the mission was successful, trying to avoid that many Dominion troops was stressful. Fighting the urge to kill the bastards that were attacking her always was, especially considering their employer. At least the Zerg got something for their troubles: half a brood, a mauled broodmother, and an infested Terran with severe psychological issues. Better something than nothing. Cain had even been able to convince the poor girl to come along willingly. Not bad for a man who seemed to think that explosions were the solution to every problem, in some way, shape, or form. Apparently he's a better talker than he gave himself credit for.

Abathur slithered our of his 'lab', seemingly looking for something. "Ah, my Queen. I was looking for the specimen you recovered from your most recent undertaking. Can you tell me where it is? It has yet to be delivered to my chambers."

"I already ordered the drones to hand the hybrid's corpse over to you. I'm sure they've dropped it off by now…"

"I was referring to the human specimen." The creature corrected. "While the hybrid's tissue is useful, the human female is much more interesting for some of my side-projects. Can you tell me where it has gone?"

It was times like these that Kerrigan wished her chief geneticist would just stay in his lab and work. Sure, bringing him along like this allowed him to identify interesting things to pick up, but it did mean that she'd have to deal with him a lot more often. "_Lilith_ isn't here as your lab rat." She said, stressing the name. "You're not going to experiment on her unless I tell you to. Make that a standing order for every other sentient being we come across. If she's really that interesting, you can ask Sa'ti all about her when the broodmother wakes up again. Other than that, no harassing. Do you understand?"

Abathur stayed silent for a few seconds before replying: "I understand your command, but not your reasoning. There could be much we could learn from her. Her mind has remained remarkably intact. I need to know how Sa'ti accomplished this. Not to mention that the specimen is in dire need of a few physical upgrades."

Her reasoning, of course, was that Kerrigan had no intention whatsoever of putting anyone through the same horrors that she had faced. No one deserved that. Of course, Abathur would never really understand why having your humanity taken away from you is a bad thing. "The only thing you could possibly get from her is new and interesting ways to infest humans. That won't earn us any favor with our allies. You know that, so stay away from her. If she comes to you, you call me and we'll work something out. If not, I don't want you messing around, okay? Consider humans to be off-limits."

"That is…inefficient. I could improve her abilities significantly." Abathur complained.

"Well, sometimes we have to do what's best in the long run instead of what's best now. So, let me repeat: no experimenting on humans or former humans without my consent. Got it?"

"Very well. If that is your wish, I shall obey, but you are not doing anyone any favors. Not the Swarm, nor her, or humanity as a whole."

Kerrigan could feel the frustration building up again. Why couldn't Abathur just leave it be with a 'yes, ma'm' like everyone else. "Lilith seems smart enough to handle herself and I'm sure that humanity, just like any other sentient race, can solve its own problems just fine. Even if it takes a while."

"Can they? What part of the history of humanity has given you that idea? It is little more than a collection of wars and conflicts fought over petty notions of ownership and superstitions. Judging by their current state of affairs, I have no doubt that this will continue, possibly forever. Is it just to condemn an entire race to an endless cycle of conflict and oppression when we have another solution available?"

"Well, that's why Raynor's Raiders were formed. To bring peace and freedom to a world that desperately needed it."

"Indeed, they were… Throughout history, many men of great power have often used their influence to change the galaxy for the better. But consider this, my Queen: even if the Raiders were to succeed in everything they set out to do, they will die eventually. How long would their peace last once Commander Raynor succumbs to old age? How long before the idealism fades away and corruption and greed guide the destiny of mankind once again? Surely, my Queen, you see the need for a more permanent solution…"

"Abathur, your solution involves conquering and infesting every human planet in the sector. Why are you even considering it? They're our allies, dammit! You'll have to come up with a better plan."

"Our alliance gives us an obligation to help them, even if it means saving them from themselves." The geneticist pressed. "They _will _inevitably destroy each other. We _can_ end their suffering. There is no logical reason _not_ to incorporate them into the Swarm once the conflict with the hybrids is resolved."

"Apart from the fact that there isn't much evidence supporting your 'sentient life is doomed' theory. Let's review: the humans and the Protoss are still around and don't seem like they're going to go extinct anytime soon. Now, the Xel'Naga are dead, but only because _we_ killed them all."

"They are not the only intelligent life the Swarm has encountered. They are only the ones we found alive. Throughout the millennia, the Zerg have found countless dead worlds, many of them bearing the marks of civilizations thousands, even millions of years old. These worlds were not destroyed by outsiders. They perished because their 'intelligent' inhabitants polluted themselves to oblivion or incinerated each other once they learned how to split the atom. Whatever potential those creatures once had was wasted thanks to their blindness. Had we encountered them sooner, we could have given them purpose, saved them from their own stupidity. We could have incorporated them into the Swarm and all would have been stronger for it. Humanity has only escaped this fate because it developed space travel before it was devoured by its emotions. This, however, can easily change in the future." Kerrigan briefly wondered if his apparent altruism was genuine or not. Regardless, hearing one of her top lieutenants talk like that was frightening. Especially because his arguments weren't unconvincing.

"But we're taking away their ability to choose. The same ability that leads to humanity being so effective at surviving. That ability is one of the reasons you _want_ to infest them in the first place!" Humanity had suffered too much already thanks to the Zerg. Now this _thing_ is trying to finish them off completely? Not while she still drew breath, that was for sure. Convincing argument or not.

Still, Abathur pressed on. "One could argue that forcing a child into school is a breach of its freedom. Yet no one attempts to stop the practice of education because all acknowledge it as necessary. Without the knowledge and wisdom gained from it, one cannot be a productive member of society. I see no moral difference between that and assimilation."

"Humans aren't children. I happen to know quite a few of them who are perfectly rational. Some of them are even wiser than you are. Even if they couldn't control themselves, you can't just go around and shelter people from the big, bad universe for the rest of their lives. Eventually, people will have to make their own mistakes so that they can learn from them. It's not our job to risk our necks for them."

"The dead cannot learn, my Queen. If we cannot reason with them and know that their path leads to their destruction, we should interfere. The Swarm has little to gain from smoldering corpses."

"Free will is a birthright. We can't just take it away." Kerrigan knew better than anyone what it was like to live as someone's pawn.

"Free will is an illusion. We are all shackled in some manner, be that through our biology, technological abilities, or the responsibilities that society gives us. We must be, or anarchy will reign and any semblance of civilization will collapse."

Kerrigan was rapidly running out of arguments, as well as patience, and was about to pull rank on the creature when Izsha interfered. How long the adjutant had been listening to them argue, or how she even got here, the Queen didn't know. "It doesn't matter which one of you is right or wrong. Right now, neither of you are considering the practical implications of what you're suggesting. Abathur, as wasteful as the death of humanity would be, do we really want to incorporate a race that's too stupid _not_ to blow themselves to smithereens? A species that has turned self-destruction into an art-form?"

"Sentient life is unique in the sense that a few of their number can doom their entire race." The creature answered. "All it takes is a single madman with access to the right tools. That one man's actions need not reflect on the value of the rest of the species."

"Still, the inability to see a situation like that coming doesn't exactly speak well of the race in question. If they can't figure out a solution to a really simple problem, letting them die out is just natural selection. The universe doesn't abide stupidity."

"True, but how does that benefit us? As I said, the Swarm has little to gain from smoldering corpses. We wish to improve. The other races wish to live. Incorporation benefits us both."

"Somehow, I don't think humanity will see it that way." Kerrigan muttered.

Abathur seemed genuinely annoyed at that. "Why would their opinion matter so much to you? They do not care for ours when they are exterminating us."

"Well, of course they don't." The queen replied. "We've been trying to kill them all for years."

"We seek to improve ourselves by improving them. We take a people that is without purpose and push them onto the path to perfection. If you wish proof of our sincerity, you need only look in a mirror. Your body is stronger, faster and more capable in every way compared to your human one. No sane man would ever object to that."

Judging by the voices in her head and the difficulty she had in controlling her anger, Kerrigan was inclined to disagree. As much as the 'upgrades' have helped her over the past few weeks, the price she paid for them wasn't worth it. Then again, Abathur probably wouldn't care much about such things. "It still isn't our choice to make."

"You forget that inaction is an action in its own right. Whether or not we have a right to make that choice for them is irrelevant. If we decide to leave humanity be, we force the status quo upon them. If we decide to incorporate them, we force perfection upon them. Either way, our actions will decide their fate. Their destiny is in our hands, whether we wish it or not. As such, it all comes down to which decision is best. You cannot let your love for one man affect your decisions."

Something snapped inside Kerrigan's mind. Anger and fear boiled up to the surface and she could feel her body grown tense. She had always assumed that she'd been able to hide the real reason for nearly everything she's done the past few weeks. Whether she was willing to admit it or not, Raynor had always occupied her thoughts in some way or another. She would gladly risk her life for his, consequences be damned. If that was the definition of love, then yes, she was definitely in love. Normally, she wouldn't mind people noticing, but to hear it coming from the 'mouth' of the Leviathan's resident grub monster held…unpleasant implications. If he saw this as a weakness…

Before she could punch Abathur in the face, Izsha interjected, attempting to be a peacemaker. "Mistress, we have been aware of your emotional attachment to Commander Raynor since the moment you woke up on Elysium, though we weren't aware of the full extent of them until later. Feelings that strong are impossible to hide in a telepathic collective, regardless of your capabilities."

"My emotions are none of your business." Kerrigan snarled.

"Under most circumstances, I would have agreed, but you are our leader and one of the only beings in the galaxy powerful enough to command the entirety of the Swarm. Therefore, it _is _our 'business.'" Abathur continued, in an unusually angry tone. "Emotions grant you a drive that allows you to succeed in some conditions, but they can also destroy you if left unchecked. I fear that you are heading down that path, and it is my hope to avert it. You are our queen and I cannot stand by and watch you tear yourself apart."

"I don't need a therapist, dammit. I can take care of myself."

"If that were true, we would not be speaking of this, now. It is clear that you are suffering, and when you suffer, we all do. Your relationship with the human brings you some measure of peace, but it will inevitably cause you pain in the long run. If this occurs at the wrong time, it could very well mean the end of the Zerg Swarm. None of us wish that to happen and therefore, I strive to avert this."

Kerrigan stared at the creature as the pieces began to fall together in her mind. There was a conspiracy, just not the one she was expecting. "You two are trying to make me feel better…"

"That would be a gross over-simplification of our goal, but it would not be inaccurate. Your duty as queen is to give us purpose, and you cannot do that if emotional turmoil consumes you."

"They're trying to make me feel better…" Kerrigan muttered at herself. She felt like such an idiot. The idea that any of the Zerg would turn on her at this point seemed so stupid now. Nothing more than idle paranoia. Of course they couldn't, even if they wanted to. They needed her as much as she needed them. Even if they didn't, their own biology made open revolt impossible. She was just too powerful. She had always been too powerful. "It's nice to know that you care, even if it is for a selfish reason." She told her underlings. Returning to her quarters, she burst into laughter. Queen of the freaking Zerg and the sector's greatest telepath, but still completely oblivious when it really mattered. For some reason, that thought made her feel better than she had felt in weeks.

"That was…an unexpected result." Abathur said, overhearing his queen's rather surprising reaction.

"What were you trying to pull off, anyway?" Izsha reprimanded. "If you're trying to provoke her…"

"It was not my intention to antagonize her. I would have let the matter be for now, but her insistence on staying away from the humans proved too much. I only wanted her to see that her responsibilities to the Swarm are too great for her to be selfish. Given her reaction, I cannot say if I had been successful. I fear I may never fully understand the human mind."

"Indeed. Consider yourself lucky. She could have killed you. I know she nearly did." The adjutant sighed. "You can't toy with people's emotions like that. One of these days, I'll have Tiberias give you a few lessons in human interaction."

Abathur snorted back. "We cannot afford to tarry. Her feelings for the humans are clouding her judgment. We cannot replace her, so a more direct approach is necessary if she cannot realize her folly herself."

"The human is also the only reason she's still sane. Trust me, he is. The Terran mind isn't designed to handle so much death without some joy to act as a counterbalance. Let her have Raynor, at least for the moment."

"It will not last forever. Even if all she hopes comes to pass, the human will die at some point. She'll have to face the facts eventually, Izsha."

"Abathur, if she has a break-down here, we're all as good as dead. Planning for tomorrow is nice, but not if we won't live long enough to see it."

"True, but winning the day is irrelevant if we have no tomorrow. She is the only one who can give us one. I believe she understands that, now. If she does, I have done my duty. If there is anything else, I shall be in my chamber."

Izsha looked at the departing creature, mentally imagining ways to smack him with the tentacles attached to her body. God, how she hated him sometimes. Logic and reason are great in solving scientific problems, not psychological ones. Why couldn't the arrogant bastard see that?

Still, Abathur's methods seem to have yielded some sort of result. Whether or not it was the right one remains to be seen…


	78. Chapter 78

**Leviathan, Deep Space**

Lilith couldn't help but feel surprised at the rather strange turn her life had taken. Just a few weeks ago, she was training with the Mar Sara militia, hoping that one day she'd be able to join the Raiders and fight for her people's freedom. Now, she was on board a 'Leviathan' class Zerg starship (or creature, it was never easy to tell with them) practicing her aim with someone who looked suspiciously like the primary antagonist in last year's blockbuster 'Night of the Zerg IV'. Unlike that stupid movie, however, this was all very, very real. The AGR-14 in her hands was real (how the Zerg managed to get their hands on that thing, she didn't want to know), the slime underneath her feet was real (and the squishing maddening as hell), even the target (a really unlucky zergling) in front of her was real. This wasn't a dream, as much as she wished it was.

"Careful now, the gun kicks like an angry horse. I had to take out the recoil dampeners to make room for the new loading mechanism." Tiberias, as she found out his name was, said, pointing to the modified weapon. The guy, if that term still applied to him, seemed alright, having taken it upon himself to teach her how to 'properly integrate into the Swarm'. Unfortunately, he also seemed to be the ship's armorer and had some interesting notions about gun design. "That way we can use organic spikes instead of bullets. We'd have to steal ammo from the humans otherwise."

"Those dampeners are the only reason anyone can shoot straight with this thing. Without them, you can't hit the broadside of a barn, even if you were standing inside it."

"Well, that's what the rate of fire is for. You could aim, but thanks to yours truly, you don't have to. Trust me, I have three years of experience with an even bigger gun. If I can do it, so can you." Cain's teaching style was a little unusual, in her opinion. Rather than yelling at her like a drill sergeant, he seemed to prefer a gentler approach. Tomfoolery as opposed to the discipline that she was used to. She actually liked it. It was odd, though, to hear a Zerg talk like this. He was, after all, discussing ways to kill your fellow man in the same fashion one might the rules of football…

"You're kidding, right? You're eight feet tall and built like you could beat a space marine in a wrestling match. What about dear old me? How am I supposed to use this gun if I can't handle the recoil?"

"Practice, practice, practice. You'll get more muscular eventually, Lilith. Just let your body adapt to the weapon, and you'll be kicking Dominion ass in no time."

Ah, yes, the Dominion. A common enemy and the only reason Lilith could even live with her decision to 'willingly' join the Zerg. Sure, it felt like a Faustian bargain at the best of times but it was still better than being sliced up in a lab. As it turned out, her new boss had a personal score to settle with the emperor. While Lilith didn't know why (and didn't dare ask yet), she knew hatred when she saw it. One way or another, the Dominion was going down. What would happen afterwards, however, she didn't know and it bothered Lilith greatly.

"Tai, do you think humans and Zerg will ever stop fighting each other?"

Cain looked at her, not really knowing how to answer that. "You mean without one side getting thoroughly blown to bits by the other? Doubtfully. Maybe if we pack up and leave, but other than that…"

"It shouldn't be impossible, right? I mean, I don't think anyone here holds a grudge against humanity in general. All it would take is for the boss to tell everyone we're not fighting anymore and we could all live in peace."

"Sorry, kid, but I don't think that's possible." He said, clear and direct like the blow of a hammer. "Look, you won't get peace just because everyone involved decides to stop fighting. If it was that easy, human history would have been a lot less bloody. You only get peace when you can convince people to stop hating one another and _that_ is a lot harder. I think the Zerg Swarm, justified or not, has done too much damage to the human planets in the sector for them to ever forgive or forget."

"But that doesn't mean that it's impossible, or that we shouldn't at least try."

"Just because something isn't impossible, doesn't mean that you should try doing it anyway. I know that working for peace may seem like the right thing to do, but you're trying to fight a battle that can't be won. The thing is, we have nothing in common with them. We're a collectivist people, they are individualistic to the extreme. Their society runs on getting more material wealth, we don't have any possessions at all. Our technology and economy are completely different too. The thing is, there is nothing we have that a human would want and the only thing we want from the humans is the one thing few are willing to give." In spite of Cain's unbelievable pessimism, Lilith was certain that there always was a light at the end of the tunnel. People could always find a way to make peace with one another.

"Well, we're immune to diseases, right? Giving humanity a panacea will certainly earn you some good-will."

"Would _you_ trust a Zerg doctor, Lilith? When you were human, I mean."

The one thing she hadn't really thought off: old-fashioned human paranoia. "I suppose not…"

As if he immediately sensed the girl's disappointment, Cain put a hand on her shoulder and said: "C'mon, sit down. Now, Zerg and humans are very different in many ways, but I think the most important difference between us is the human ability to hate. The way I see it, we Zerg just don't get the concept of hate."

Lilith snickered in response. "Yeah, right. Dream on. Everybody hates and Zerg are no exception. From what I've heard about the Brood War…"

"I don't mean the kind of hate for someone who just gets on your nerve. I mean the kind of hate that eats you from the inside out until it's the only thing you can feel. Yes, Zerg can be vindictive, ruthless, single-minded, mean, malicious, and pointlessly violent, but our emotions are all temporary. They may be intense while they last, but eventually, we always seem to get over them. I don't know how, but anger like that just doesn't really stick and boil up in us the way that it does in humans. Hate isn't just about being angry at something. Hatred is when you're completely obsessed with destroying something or someone to the point where you don't care who or what is caught in the blast. Hatred is like putting a bomb in your pocket, standing next to your enemy, and detonating it. Hatred is just…pure, irrational self-destruction. Probably the reason we can't experience it like that: the Swarm doesn't exactly benefit from people too stupid _not_ to get themselves killed."

For some reason, she didn't get the impression that Cain was lying to her, or trying to spread pro-Zerg propaganda. Was he telling the truth? She feared he might be. Hate _is _a problem, one that had slowly been destroying humanity for millennia, but the idea that the Zerg could better than humans in any respect was still a little nauseating. "Okay, so not every Zerg hates, but every Zerg is still capable of it. Especially people like...well…you and me. Former humans."

Cain shrugged. "Well, I've given up on hating tings a long time ago. Guys like me probably can't change the world anyway. People live, people die, and nothing substantial ever changes. There's just no point to being angry all the time." An awfully defeatist point-of-view, in Lilith's opinion, but at the same time, frighteningly sensible. "As for you: if you really hated us, having nowhere else to go wouldn't have been a good enough reason for you to come along. You would probably have grabbed the closest weapon and tried to kill as many Zerg as you could get your hands on. Or maybe you'd hand yourself over to the Dominion, just in case their experiments lead to a new weapon against us. You may not like us, but you don't really hate us either.

"What about the boss? I'm not exactly sure why, but I know she's got some serious beef with the emperor. If she starts picking fights with the wrong people or getting lots of innocents killed, don't we have an obligation to do something about it?" Lilith realized the same could be said about her, to an extent. After all, you don't join the Raiders unless you seriously want to see the Dominion fall. However, she'd never risk millions of innocents to do it. Kerrigan might not share that restraint…

Tiberias sighed. "Lilith, her majesty is a…special case. You probably heard about the Dominion attack on Char, right? Well, their ace-in-the-hole was some sort of ancient piece of Zerg-killing magi-tech that Raynor and his merry men managed to dig up somewhere. When the Raiders fired the thing, it obliterated our headquarters and every last Zerg in it, including our previous leader. Their hopes were that it would somehow turn the queen human again, but it didn't really work as intended, as you may have noticed. Trouble is, she's still experiencing the effects. Coming to think of it, even the old queen was a bit of an oddity. She was the Overmind's pet project, and no one's really sure what he did to her. Still, if she really is capable of hating, she probably would have burnt the Dominion to ash by now…" He paused for a bit, noticing the doubts on the girl's face. "We don't need to worry about any of that, though. She'll hold together. Honestly, I'm more worried about you…"

"I'm fine, Tiberias." Lilith said in an annoyed tone.

"No you're not. When people say they're fine, it usually means 'I'm terribly depressed but I don't want to talk about it'. Trust me, some things you just don't want to bottle up."

In all honesty, there were a lot of things that were making her upset. Things Lilith wasn't sure she should really talk about in present company. Still, he did ask… "Well, what am I supposed to say? That I feel you people have ruined my life? That I'm homesick as hell, but that at the same time afraid of what people will say when they see me like this?" She pointed at her body and the thin layer carapace that covered it. "That I want to vent on you but can't because you're being so goddamn nice to me?!"

"I'm too nice? Not sure if I should take that as an insult or a compliment…" Before Lilith could slap him for his callousness, Cain said: "In all seriousness, though, I'd be more worried about you if you _didn't _want to kick my ass right about now. You can be angry at me all you want. Trust me, having a spiritual punching bag can be very helpful for people like us. Believe me, I know. But if you let your anger fester into hate, eventually you won't be able to live without it. At that point, you've already got one foot in your grave."

Lilith burst into laughing. As true as his statement might be, it was probably the corniest thing she's ever heard. "Well, thank you for the words of wisdom, oh great Sensei. Where did you get that from, a fortune cookie?"

"An old friend of mine once said that, but I'm pretty sure _he_ got it from a fortune cookie… Still, truth is truth. Doesn't matter where it comes from."

"And now you're doing it again. Gosh, you're horrible." She continued snickering for a while, but found the humor in the situation quickly ebbing away. While she appreciated his efforts to lighten the mood, it wasn't good enough. "So…did you ever meet someone from…well…your human life, for lack of a better term?" She asked, tentatively.

While Lilith found Cain's face very hard to read, she could have sworn she saw a hint of sadness in it. "Only once. Friend of mine who joined the Dominion Military. To say that he wasn't happy to see me was an understatement."

"I'm sorry…" She couldn't help but pity him a little, as absurd as it was to her. Pitying a Zerg? Her friends back home would have declared her insane just for that.

"Don't be. It wasn't your fault and it's not like you could have changed anything anyway. Besides, I tried to convince him to abandon his men and join the Swarm. Not one of my smartest decisions."

"How did it end?"

"He had hundreds of men armed with guns, tanks and a few nukes. There is a continent on Torus that is currently uninhabitable. I'm sure you can figure out what happened…"

Cain had said that he knew what hate could end up doing to someone. Lilith hadn't realized just how well until now. "I see. How do you end up dealing with it?"

"In short: Don't dwell on it. Find a way to let go of your old life. It's gone now. Get used to it, or you'll go crazy. Since you're part of the Swarm now, I'd suggest using that free will of yours and doing something that helps the Zerg in some way. Small things, like breaking in the rookies, or target practice. Speaking of which…" He said, his face turning into a grin. "…we really need to work on your aim. It's bloody awful."

Back to tomfoolery it is, then. "Really, now? How about you stand on the other end of the range so we can see just how bad my aim is, huh."

Though it felt like she was betraying the human race just to think so, Lilith didn't feel quite as out-of place as she thought she should. Maybe she was falling under their spell, or maybe they're not quite the evil UNN made them out to be. Whatever it was, she felt that she might one day learn to live with her new life. She might even be able to change the Zerg for the better.

For the sake of her sanity, she had to.


	79. Chapter 79

**Bridge, Bucephalus, Tyrador System**

"Tyrador VIII's military governor just called, my lord. She said she's willing to back us when the time comes. With her on our side, I think it's safe to say that the Tyrador system is now firmly under our control."

"Thank you, commander. That will be all."

The officer saluted and returned to his duty, leaving a tired and worn prince alone with the stars. It is finally happening, Valerian thought. Slowly but surely, the revolution that the Raiders started with that one, faithful broadcast was finally taking shape.

From the outside, you probably wouldn't be able to see it. Business was still going on as usual in most places: food was still being produced, goods were still being bought and sold, the worlds of humanity were still turning. Under the surface, however, one could feel the winds of change stirring. Gun sales had gone up last week for the first time since the battle for Char. An air of paranoia and fear for the future strained the atmosphere on nearly every world. It was as if the sector itself was collectively holding its breath for the coming storm, and the Crown Prince was in the middle of it all.

For the past few weeks, he had been working almost non-stop, fighting a shadow war with his father. By now, the emperor must have been fully aware of what his son was trying to do. At this stage, his alliance with the Raiders and intention to overthrow his father had practically become a public secret. Still, there was no definite proof of his involvement in anything of the sort. Officially, he was still hunting the Zerg, running from planet to planet like a knight errand of old in an attempt to stop them, only halting his quest to stock up on more fuel, ammo, and stim-packs. An image not unlike the one Arcturus Mengsk used to cultivate when he led the Sons of Korhal. The sheer irony of his father, now the government with near-limitless resources, being unable to stop this insurrection from happening entertained the Prince to no end. That said, the constant work combined with the omnipresent fear of being caught was taking its toll. Still, it was completely worth it.

Valerian Mengsk hated his father. While he never had the courage to say it straight to the man's face, it was no secret to anyone. He despised the needless oppression of the masses, the constant propaganda, and the lives that were wasted, not for the greater good, but to nourish the vanity and greed of a single man. When Arcturus Mengsk would finally be kicked off his throne and thrown to the wolves, the Crown Prince wouldn't shed a single tear over his passing. However, if anyone had told him a year ago that HE would one day help bring the emperor down, he would have declared them insane. Hating the man was one thing, but actively trying to remove him from power… Even Valerian himself didn't think he'd ever have the guts to pull it off. Yet here he was, making deals, building bridges and trying to insure that, no matter what, any revolution would be as quick and bloodless as possible. Given the stakes involved, he couldn't afford to have it happen any other way.

The memories from the crystal still haunted his dreams. He had never been in a real battle before and had only rarely seen someone die right in front of him. Having to watch hours of endless, brutal melee combat, culminating in a battle that resulted in the end of an entire species was downright horrific for anyone to see, let alone someone who's lived a mostly sheltered life like he had. It was probably half the reason he hadn't been sleeping well lately. Still, it put things into perspective. Winning a battle is pointless if you end up losing the war. If Valerian crippled the human military in an effort to overthrow his father, he'd only be playing right into the hands of his ultimate enemy: this 'Fallen One' and his army of hell-spawn. That said, he couldn't sit by and do nothing. Sure, it would be easy to keep his father in charge and guarantee that humanity would stand (mostly) united against the coming darkness, but it would never be enough. If the most recent Zerg invasion is any indication, it was painfully obvious that the emperor could not be entrusted with the fate of all mankind. He gladly abandoned entire worlds to their fates, simply because it was too much effort to help them. Worlds that could have been evacuated, or even saved, had the Dominion intervened. Worlds that could have been given hope in dark times like these. Given the success of groups like Raynor's Raiders, his father's inaction was inexcusable. Hope was the one thing people needed most in a fight like this, but all his father had given them was fear.

The Dominion had four years to prepare for the inevitable Zerg invasion. Four years! What did it do with all that precious time? Waste billions hunting dissidents, funding propaganda, and building giant warmachines which every single competent commander in the military said would be completely impractical in actual combat anyway. To make matters worse, Arcturus Mengsk ended up demonizing everyone that could potentially be an ally in the coming battle. That was the legacy of his father: terror, waste, and xenophobia.

Humanity needed a new government if it was going to live long enough to decide whether or not Valerian was doing the right thing. It needed leaders that understood war, that understood what was coming and how to stop it. It needed to be commanded by those willing to put aside their own personal wishes for the good of all.

The crown prince had many doubts, but of one thing, he was certain: if humanity would face the hybrids and live, Emperor Mengsk had to go.

He knew, however, that the emperor would never let go of his throne willingly, which was the cause of Valerian's worries and insomnia. Even though he had a trustworthy crew, including the most powerful human psychic alive, and support of much of the population, his father was still a brilliant man and a dangerous opponent. If the prince slipped up, even once, the man would come down on him like the hammer of the gods.

"Umm, my lord?" One of the communications officers said, snapping the prince out of his thoughts. "We have an incoming transmission." Right, back to work, he thought. Valerian shouldn't fret about what could happen if he failed. Instead, he realized that the best way to banish those worries was to make sure he didn't fail to begin with.

"From whom?"

"By the looks of it, from…Umoja? Proper encryption too. How did they even…"

"They're Umojans. They've probably bugged half the ship by now without anyone realizing it."

"Wait, doesn't that mean they'll know about me and ensign…"

"Just put it onscreen before you embarrass yourself even more, lieutenant."

The officer pushed a few buttons, revealing the prince's old Umojan friend. "Zach! To what do I owe the pleasure?" Valerian immediately gestured the rest of the crew, ordering them to clear the bridge. If Zach called, it would undoubtedly be about something important. In his line of work, 'important' usually meant 'sensitive' as well. It was best to make sure there weren't any eavesdroppers. "If you're wondering about Dr. Narud, I'm afraid I don't have much to give you yet…"

"Actually, there's something else. From what I've heard, you've been pretty busy lately. What with your new Raider friends and your little revolution and all that…"

"I neither confirm nor deny these allegations." Valerian replied, cheekily.

"Aww, don't give me that, Val. You can always tell your old buddy. Though I'd understand if you'd leave out the bit about you getting friendly with them Zerg…"

The prince immediately tensed up and the mention of the word 'Zerg'. Part of him knew that the Umojans would find out sooner or later, but he had hoped it would more towards the latter. If this information got out, the repercussions would be severe. Still, there's no point in denying it now. "I'd laugh in your face and call you an idiot just for suggesting it, but I doubt it would do any good."

"Hey, I ain't judging you! Can't deny that their boss is pretty hot, don'tcha think?"

"I'll be sure to tell her next time. Maybe she'll pay you a visit. I've heard that the Zerg act of mating can be quite…intense. You'll love it." Speaking so candidly about working with the Zerg made Valerian uneasy. Still, Zach was his friend.

"Very funny. Good to know you can still give as good as you can take. Thought you'd have gone soft with that pretty blonde walking around…"

"You're still a terrible person, Zach, but I doubt you'd put this much effort into calling me just to complain about my love life."

"A lesser man might. Fortunately for you, yours truly ain't a lesser man. Thing is, my old boss knows you're friends with the Zerg and they think you're using them to help get rid of your old man. Now, I don't know how you managed to talk to them without getting your head bitten off, and I don't care. We just want to know what your friends are up to. Just how strong is that leash of yours?" By that, he meant Kerrigan, of course. He was probing the prince for answers. The former operative must know something. Something really bad.

"If you're worried she's going to go on a killing spree, don't. I can guarantee that she won't turn on us."

"Really? And just how do ya figure?" Zach asked, skeptically.

Because all of creation is about to be wiped out by Protoss/Zerg hybrids. It's true, I saw it in a dream. Yeah, he'd never buy that. Not without tangible evidence. "I could tell you, but you'd never believe me."

"C'mon, Val, you know me better than that."

"I'm serious, you wouldn't. Even if you did, I'm not sure I can trust your boss with it. I need more proof before I go public with this. Nothing personal, it's just that some things are best left on a need-to-know basis."

Zach's expression changed. He must have realized the gravity of the situation. "That big, huh? Figured as much." Valerian briefly wondered if the man knew just how deep the rabbit hole got. The prince didn't know what was more frightening: the fact that he didn't, or the fact that he did… "Look, I gotta say something to my boss. I trust you, but you know the suits. They always need their 'assurances'. They get worried when, oh I don't know, a colossal Zerg army starts making its way towards human territory. You know, that sort of thing. We're kinda trying to keep that from happening." He knew more than he was letting on. Still, it couldn't have been solid evidence. If he had any, Zach would have said it. Still, another Zerg invasion? Kerrigan wouldn't do that, not while Raynor was still alive. Valerian was sure of it.

"There is one thing…Jim Raynor."

"Raynor? Ain't he the Zerg Queen's boyfriend?"

"Pretty much. You've probably heard that he's gone missing. As far as I can tell, he's the biggest reason the Zerg haven't invaded Korhal yet. If we were to find him…"

"Just Raynor, huh? His word's really all that's keepin' the Zerg from going apeshit? Kinda hard to believe, if you ask me. Just sayin' that it didn't exactly stop her before." Given the history of the Zerg Swarm, Zach's skepticism wasn't entirely misplaced.

"Zach, don't play dumb. If you could find any link between me and the Zerg, I'm sure your people would be able to figure out that Kerrigan isn't the Queen of Blades anymore."

"Well, that's what the guys seem to think, but to be honest, they have a habit of screwing things up from time to time. We helped your dad, remember. Not one of our finest moments."

Oh, yes, Valerian remembered. He remembered that the Umojan Protectorate had sheltered himself and his mother, as well as providing supplies and safe haven for the future emperor's revolution. In gratitude, Acturus Mengsk ended up declaring the entire Protectorate race traitors. "You're worried that you're trusting the wrong people and that it'll come to haunt you sooner rather than later. Well, that makes two of us…"

"Not helpin', Val."

"Look, you want to make things better? Find Raynor. That boyfriend business is _not _an exaggeration. If there's anyone who can make sure the Zerg are on our side, it's him."

"Fair enough, though I can't say why you'd want them anyway. Peace is nicer than open war, but still. Better to be rid of them, nice and tidy. That's the official Protectorate stance on them, anyway. Not like we're racist or anything, it's just…well…they're freakin' Zerg for crying out loud! What good could come from those things anyway?"

"If they're in the right place and the right time, more than you can imagine."

"Disturbing, impressive, and absolutely devoid of any real information. You're shapin' up to be one hell of a politician, Val." Zach turned to his computer and started typing. "Anyway, Raynor…Let's see, here…Latest whereabouts…ah, there it is. Current whereabouts are…unknown. Well, that ain't exactly helpful. Hmm…I suppose I can give you this: There's a Dominion Cruiser sitting just at the edge of our territory. The White Star. Looks like they stuck a lot of sensor equipment on it. Bastards must think they're clever, extending their range and hoping we don't see them. Oh, how wrong they are. Ol' Bessy sees all and knows all. Anyway, it's not the ship that's interesting, it's who's on it. Ever heard of a General Jack Morrigan?"

Valerian winced at the mere mention of this very, very unpleasant man. It was one thing if his father were to find out about his Zerg 'friends', but someone like Morrigan? He would probably suffer something worse than a ruined reputation. "My father put him in charge of hunting down and destroying the Zerg. We've crossed paths…unfortunately."

"So have our guys, apparently. Completely mad, they say. Seriously, Val, do you ever meet any normal people these days? You really should; don't want the crazy rotting your brain. Just look at me… Anyway, we're not sure where Raynor is now, I know, you can laugh at me later, but we think the Dominion probably grabbed him. If they haven't put him on display yet, I'm guessing your old fried has him, or at least knows how to find him. I guess that's the best I can do, right now. Sendin' ya everything we have on the ship. Even if it ain't what you're looking for, would you kindly tell the bastard to, well, get the hell out before we start jamming missiles up its exhaust pipe? We don't take to kindly to peepin' Tom's."

"Pot, meet kettle. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. Thank you." It was a rather generous offer. They must really hate having the White Star sneaking about. On second thought, however, that information better be really good if it meant that Valerian had to deal with General Morrigan again.

"Good huntin'. Now, about that pretty blonde with the nice curves. Talk to me about her. You two a thing yet?"

The first thought on the Prince's mind could best be summed up as: Oh, you've got to be kidding me. The second: "What was that? It appears we're traveling through a nebula and I'm losing your signal. You'll have to call me back later."

"Oh, c'mon, that's your best excuse? A stinkin' nebula! Don't leave me hanging, man! I thought we…" Before he could finish, the prince cut the connection. Not very polite, but Umoja didn't need to hear about his love life, thank you very much.

General Morrigan. The prince figured that cold-hearted bastard would fit into all this somehow. It made sense that he would have taken Raynor during the engagement over Dead Man's Rock and if he did, that he wouldn't have told the Emperor about it until he'd learned everything there was to know about the Zerg from the rebel. Valerian would have to act quickly. There was no telling how much time Raynor had left.

The prince would probably need to mobilize his allies for this. If he interfered directly, he could start his revolution prematurely. The Raiders would be the logical choice. Even the Zerg would work. After all, no one would be all that surprised if the Dominion's top Zerg expert was killed by the Swarm or…

Valerian suddenly realized what he was doing. He was thinking about ordering a hit on a Dominion officer.

A single word was running through his mind, eventually finding its way to his lips. One that perfectly described the current state of affairs:

"Shit."


	80. Chapter 80

**Primary Hive, Marrakesh**

It was midday when the Zerg returned to their current base of operations. Kerrigan decided it was high time to inform her allies of her success back on Mar Sara and ask if there had been any clues as to the whereabouts of Raynor. This gave the others some downtime before they'd leave for the next hot-spot in the sector.

For Tiberias, this meant taking care of their Protoss guests. Or, more accurately, checking on the plumbing of their chambers while getting yelled at by a very impolite First-born. Another day in the adventures of Tiberias Cain, fleet commander, general, and psychological punching bag for the Zerg Swarm. Lovely.

This time, however, he wouldn't be alone. Lilith had asked if she could come along. She always liked meeting new people, she'd said. She'd never met a Protoss and believed that anyone belonging to a race as ancient and wise as theirs wouldn't immediately write her off as a being of evil, in spite of her appearance. After all, you can't judge an entire race based on their soldiers. Just because they hate you, doesn't mean everyone else does too. Poor thing would be in for a big surprise. These Protoss weren't exactly what she would be expecting. Even Cain's warning hadn't deterred her. Still, meeting them would probably do her good, in his opinion. The girl's endless optimism and naiveté were a welcome change, given the company Cain usual kept, but she would have to let go of some of it sooner rather than later. Expecting the best in people was fine, but being constantly disappointed by everyone around you wasn't healthy for anyone. Especially someone who was still so human.

Like the queen, Lilith had taken to wearing human clothing, having somehow sown several pieces of what appeared to be carapace together into something that vaguely resembled a trench coat. Apparently her uncle was a tailor and she'd picked up a few things over the years. The one question that kept popping into his mind was: how many Zerg had she skinned for the materials? Cain decided it was best not to ask, especially when the more important question was: why would she even bother with a bloody coat in the first place?

It wasn't like she needed it, really. Okay, her carapace wasn't nearly as strong as his, but the coat wasn't exactly bullet proof either. Besides, there were other ways to prevent bullets from killing you. You could, for example, try to distract the gunman. One of the things Tai had noticed is that a skin-tight, bullet-resistant carapace suit tended to accentuate the curves of the female form. While this certainly wasn't the intended effect, the result was highly distracting to human males nonetheless. Distracting enough to keep them occupied for a second or two. In battle, this could mean the difference between killing someone or getting killed yourself.

He tried explaining it, but for some inexplicable reason Lilith seemed to take this as an insult.

While trying not to spontaneously combust under the girl's glare, he tried to elaborate further. After all, she was quite attractive by human standards (which, by the way, was a complement) and there's no shame in flaunting one's 'assets' where appropriate. That actually earned him a smack to the face.

Women…

Hopefully, the Protoss would be a little more cooperative. Not likely, though. Their unofficial leader, Lassara, and the queen did not part on the best of terms last time. Then again, shoving the hybrid straight into the Protoss' face wasn't exactly the most tactful thing her majesty had ever done. Cain could sympathize with them: he felt like murdering someone violently after seeing the hybrid in the Castanar facility. At least he had a bunch of humans handy who could act as an outlet for his frustrations. The Protoss didn't. Then again, these Protoss weren't exactly prone to violence. The worst thing Lassara had ever done was give him a tongue-lashing. Sticks and stones, as the old saying goes.

"Well, Lilith, meet Lassara. Lassara, meet Lilith." He said as he introduced the two to each other. The other Protoss still sat huddled in the back of the chamber, seemingly hoping that if they acted quietly enough, the Zerg would just forget about them. With Lassara's attitude, that wasn't exactly difficult. "Do try to play nice…"

"Oh, please. I'm not going to hurt her." Lilith said, somewhat confused. "Why would I even want to? We just met."

"He is referring to me, creature." The Protoss spat back, in her usual passive-aggressive tone.

"Wow, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning… Wait, do Protoss use beds? On reflection, do they even need sleep?"

Lassara inspected the girl with her trademark glare before turning back to Tiberias. "And what is this, abomination? Another one of your queen's mad creations? Another life devoured by the Swarm?"

"Okay, first of all, that hybrid thing you saw wasn't one of ours. You know that. We told you about five times by now. Second, Lilith is here out of her own free will. She always wanted to meet a Protoss and I obliged her. God help us all."

"Well, it was either this or get chopped into luncheon meat by the Dominion." Lilith cheerily explained. "But still, better than the alternative. And, yes, I do like meeting new people, so if I upset you somehow, I'm sorry. Did I break some unwritten rule? Like I looked you in the eye when I shouldn't, or stepped to close in your comfort zone. It's never easy to tell with another culture what you are and aren't supposed to do, you know, so…how about we start over?"

"I do not despise you for things so petty, child. You are a Zerg, and I am certain that you know what the Zerg have done to our homeworld." It was painfully obvious that Lassara was angry, but not necessarily at Lilith. It probably had something to do with the fact that her world was just turned on its head. Finding out that the apocalypse was imminent tended to do that to a person. Lilith was just a convenient target to vent her frustrations at. Whether the girl actually knew this, however…

"Well, _I_ didn't do anything to your homeworld. Why are you mad at me? Hell, I wasn't…wasn't even a Zerg back then…yet. You can hardly blame _me_ for that." The girl seemed genuinely confused. Apparently she'd never met anyone who hated her simply for no reason other than existing. Even the Dominion had a motive to hunt her: she had actively opposed them even before her infestation, after all.

"Whether or not you were one of them in those times is irrelevant, _Zerg_."

"Umm, no, it isn't. You can't punish me for something I didn't do."

"As if there is any difference between yourself and the other Zerg. You are all of one mind."

"Aren't you 'of one mind' too? Isn't that the whole idea behind that whole 'Khala' thing our xenobiologists talk about?"

Ouch, Tiberias thought, that would have struck a nerve. "You…You dare! Dare equate the teachings of Khas with your…your corruption! After taking our homes, must you taint our souls as well?!"

"Look, I don't want to do any of that, whatever that means. Geez, do you have to talk like you're reciting a bloody play from Shakespeare? What I want you to do is stop blaming me for all your problems so we can have a pleasant, casual conversation. That's a little difficult if you keep yelling at me." To Lilith's credit, she'd somehow kept her cool throughout the entire conversation.

"I am entitled to my rage, creature!"

"No, you're not. You know where I'm from, Lassara? A little outer rim colony called Mar Sara. Ever heard of it? Well, you should. It had Zerg on it, and your people turned the whole place into glass. My family and I barely escaped with our lives."

"It was necessary! The Zerg advance had to be slowed!"

"So you could do what, exactly? Aiur still fell, didn't it? Even if it didn't, what gave you the right to sacrifice _our_ worlds to save _yours_? Why didn't you find a way to cut off the head of the Swarm? The point is: my world died for nothing. But I'm not mad at _you_ for that. I'm mad at you for being a complete bitch when I've done nothing to deserve it, but not for blowing up my planet. Weird, huh? You know why? Because your _military_ blew up my planet, under orders from your _government_. If I ever saw one of the soldiers or politicians involved, yeah, I'd give them a piece of my mind. But you're a civilian, or so I've been told. You couldn't have stopped the destruction of my planet, just like I couldn't have stopped the destruction of yours. So, yeah, I'm not holding that against you. Why are you blaming _me_ for Aiur? It's tragic, just like Chau Sara and Mar Sara and Antiga were, but there are other planets in the universe. Things will get better for you, just like they'll get better for us."

"Indeed, the loss of your worlds is tragic, but surely you understand that that is a small price to pay for Aiur. The loss of so many lives and so much of our culture cannot go unavenged."

Tiberias wasn't surprised. Protoss could live for centuries. It's not that shocking to see that they wouldn't let go of a grudge overnight, even if someone rubbed their face in the fact that it was completely pointless. Still, Lilith visibly had trouble accepting that. She was growing more frustrated by the second. The girl was fierce and strong-willed, probably even before she was taken by the Zerg. In all likelihood, being infested would have made those traits even stronger. Tai wasn't sure if he should pull the two women apart or if he should grab a box of pop-corn.

"Fine, you want revenge so bad, go ahead. Hit me!" Lilith snarled, surprising everyone in the room. Cain wanted to step in, but she shooed him away. "You heard me. Hit. Me." After a moment's hesitation, the Protoss obliged. Lilith didn't make a sound when she was struck. "Again." A second blow, flat on the forehead. "Again." A third, straight to the jaw. "Now, has the world magically become a better place?"

"I…do not understand…" Lassara replied, uncertainly.

"Have the dead come back to life? Is Aiur a garden again? Has the world magically become a better place? It's a simple question." Lilith gave the Protoss a moment to give a response, but none came. "The answer, of course, is: no. Now, would your answer be any different if you had killed me? If you had killed every single Zerg in the sector? Well?!"

"It…it would help heal our souls of the wounds you have inflicted."

"For about five minutes. Then, you realize that you're still living in a ruined dump and that you've murdered god-knows-how-many just because it felt cathartic. After that, you'll end up wondering if that little moment of satisfaction was worth all the hundreds, if not thousands, of lives that it'll inevitably would have taken to wipe the Zerg from the face of the galaxy." Lilith slowly rubbed her face, nursing her bruises. "You know, for a race that's so mind-bogglingly smart, you people sure are stupid when it counts. I mean, you've been cruising around the galaxy around the time my people were still living in grass huts. You're supposed to be better than this, dammit!"

The two stared at each other in silence before Lilith turned around and left. Tai could scarcely believe what just happened. That little girl just left a _Protoss_ at a loss for words. A Protoss who could easily be ten times her age. Only a handful of people have ever beaten one of their kind in verbal combat. What the hell just happened?

Cain ran outside and found Lilith sitting on a rock. As he moved in to help her, she said: "I'll be fine. I don't need help." She was probably right: the bruising on her face had almost completely disappeared, courtesy of her regeneration. Still, for some reason, he wanted to help. "What the hell is wrong with that woman?" She asked, visibly distraught.

"She's a Protoss. We're Zerg. Protoss don't like us very much. Occupying someone's homeworld tends to do that to some people, even if neither of us were involved."

"Thing is, I don't think she's really mad at me, specifically. Don't know why, but I get the feeling she just needed to lash out at someone." So she did pick up on it. Clever girl. "Stupid, though. I'd expect that kind of thinking from a human, not from them."

"We can't fix stupid, Lilith, and we're not so different where it counts. Best we can do is learn to work with our problems. One way or another."

"I guess." Lilith stared blankly into the distance, as she often did when she didn't really know what to think. "When you mentioned that 'hybrid' thing, what were you talking about?"

"Oh dear…okay, this is going to be a long story. You might not even believe it."

"Just today, I had a shouting match with a Protoss and had a Zerg hit on me. I'm ready to believe pretty much anything by now."

"I wasn't hitting on you." Tiberias snapped back, just a little too quickly. "I only wanted to explain that…"

"…I should walk around naked because my 'assets' could be helpful in battle. You're such a gentleman. Now, hybrids."

"If you're going to call bullshit on me…"

"I won't."

Cain sighed, knowing that this was going to be a very, very long story. "Alright, then. I'll start at the beginning…"


	81. Chapter 81

**Bridge, Behemoth, Low Orbit over Marrakesh**

Kerrigan stood hunched over the repurposed holographic table, waiting for her call to be returned. It felt a little odd, having to report to Valerian and the Raiders. On the one hand, she was the queen of the Zerg. Absolute ruler of one of the, if not _the_, most powerful armies in the sector. Some part of her kept whispering in her ear that they should be reporting to her, not the other way around. On the other hand, there was something cathartic about pretending, if only for a moment, that you were just a high-ranking officer instead of a head of state. That you could do good while leaving the really difficult moral decisions in the hands of your superiors. What Kerrigan wouldn't give to go back to older, simpler times. In the end, however, pretending that you're something you're not has never helped anyone. The burden of leadership was on her shoulders whether she wanted it or not.

Of course, Kerrigan had another, more personal reason for wanting to contact her allies. Raynor had been gone a long time by now. According to Izsha, there were no public records of his current whereabouts, but that didn't say much. It only meant that Mengsk, assuming that it was the Dominion who took Jim prisoner, hadn't decided to execute him in front of the entire human race. Maybe the emperor had finally wizened up and decided to just get rid of him without all the fanfare so that he couldn't escape again. Unlikely, though; Mengsk was far too proud a man to do something that sensible.

That said, things could be even worse: if the Fallen One and his hybrid pets got their hands on him, who knows how she could get him back. Raynor could, literally, be anywhere in the galaxy in that case, never to be seen again unless the Fallen One needs him for something. Probably as bait in a trap for the Zerg…

Finally, the humans answered her call. "Ah, Ms. Kerrigan." The prince said, his voice trying to carry enough dignity to be worthy of royalty. "Good work on Mar Sara. With some luck we will be…"

"I appreciate the gratitude, Valerian, but I've got other things on my mind right now. Where's Jim?"

"Straight to the point, I see. Well, as I was discussing with our mutual friends over here, we have found a lead: the flagship of the Dominion fleet that led the battle above Dead Man's Rock. We have a plan…"

"…a lousy plan…" Warfield mumbled.

"…to capture the vessel. According to my sources, General Morrigan of the Dominion is holding the good commander prisoner and we believe that that vessel has his location. Assuming he's not on the ship itself, of course."

A good lead on Raynor. Kerrigan should be happy. Hell, she should be jumping around like a lunatic, dancing with the nearest drone. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to share the prince's optimism. Probably because others didn't either. "Is there something wrong, General?"

The aging general grumbled in return. "Nothing, other than the fact that the ship in question has the most advanced sensor array in the Dominion Fleet. Powerful enough to pick up anything with thrusters and a circuit board. With a ship like the Hyperion, we might as well call in advance to let them know we're going to be paying them a visit. In all likelihood, they'll see us coming and warp off before we can even lock on properly."

"You'll just have to be quick about your business. Eye-ball it if you have to. This is the best shot we have. I have confidence in you that you will find a way." The prince reassured, like a true politician.

"With respect, gentlemen," the queen said, suddenly, "I think I have a better option. Leviathans don't have thrusters or electronics and don't show up on thermal imaging. They're essentially invisible in deep space. We've already used them to land on Char under the noses of half the Dominion fleet, and visited countless other planets undetected. We can easily sneak up on them and board the ship before anyone knows what's going on."

Valerian shook his head, obviously trying to find the most polite way of saying something he knew Kerrigan wouldn't like to hear. "Ms. Kerrigan, don't take this the wrong way, but I'd rather not use the Zerg for this if I can avoid it and my people can't be seen 'consorting' with men like him just yet. The Raiders are still the best choice for this job. Don't get me wrong, I like your proposal, but if the Zerg are caught taking out a Dominion ship carrying a high-ranking general it will be…politically inconvenient. Especially if that ship also happens to be carrying the legendary rebel commander Jim Raynor. Surely you can understand the ramifications for Raynor if he ends up being rescued by the Zerg…"

"And surely you can understand the ramifications if the Dominion ship escapes with him still on board. What if they decide he's more trouble than he's worth now and shoot him right after they've lost you? I'll get him out of there, and if anyone sees us, I'll shoot them. Our alliance stays a secret and you have nothing to worry about. Besides, I don't think Jim will care which one of us busts him out."

"Still, the risks involved…" The prince continued, but Kerrigan cut him off.

"And I _won't_ be sidelined. Not for this."

Kerrigan and Valerian glared at each other, angrily. To the prince's credit, he didn't immediately wilt under her gaze like he did before. His new-found career as a part-time revolutionary must have finally caused him to grow a spine. The two remained in dead-lock until a young ghost stepped in.

"Your Highness, I think Kerrigan is right on this one."

"Nova, the only way this will work is if no one finds out about this. If the Raiders break Raynor out, no one will bat an eyelash, but if the Zerg do it, we can't have witnesses. That means killing everyone aboard that ship. I'd like to avoid that. General Morrigan may be a loose cannon, but he's also one of the few Dominion officers left that are actually good at what they do. I'd like to keep him alive, if possible. We may need him in the future."

"We don't have to kill them all." The ghost explained. "If someone were to hack into their computers and remove all traces of Raynor from the records, the only evidence that he was even here will be the eye-witness accounts of the crew. As far as everyone is concerned, the White Star will just be a ship filled with unlucky bastards who strayed too far into Zerg territory. Now, who do you think the people are going to believe: a bunch of soldiers loyal to a discredited emperor and probably shell-shocked to hell, or Jim Raynor standing on the Hyperion's bridge telling everyone that they are full of shit?"

"Assuming your plan even works. One does not simply hack into a military starship. There are…"

"Several adjutants, top-of-the-line firewalls, all in a closed circuit that makes hacking them remotely impossible. I know. Ghosts get trained in that sort of thing. I've pulled off crazier things than that, your highness, without having an army as back-up. I can do this."

Valerian seemed genuinely concerned for the ghost's safety. "Nova…"

"This is important. We need to make this work, and the only way we're going to do that is if we put our best resources on it. Right now, that's me. Assuming, of course, that Kerrigan would have me tag along…"

Kerrigan was conflicted. Yes, having another ghost on the team, especially one with hacking expertise, would make boarding the ship significantly easier. However, this same ghost tried to kill her the last time they met. Unwillingly, but still. Could she be trusted? "I hope that you aren't going to try to murder me this time."

"I assure you, the doc took that implant out of my head and promptly threw it out the airlock. It won't happen again, I promise."

"Nevertheless," Valerian interrupted, "you are still on medical leave, and for a good reason. You just had brain surgery and are only supposed to take light duties if you don't want to ruin your recovery."

"I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine. Modern medicine is a wonderful thing and if I spend any more time on this ship being babied around, there'll be crewmen in the mess hall dancing the Cha-Cha in their underpants."

Now it was Nova and Valerian's turn to be locked in a glaring contest. In all honestly, the prince's concern wasn't completely unjustified. The last time the ghost got sent on a mission with the Zerg, she was returned in a less-than-mint condition. While it wasn't entirely Kerrigan's fault, it wasn't that surprising that the prince was reluctant to send Nova into harm's way again.

"Very well then." The prince finally conceded. "If there are no more objections, then we will continue as discussed. There'll be a ship carrying Nova and her equipment at the following coordinates. I'll send over all the data I have on this mission with her. Just…try to get everyone out intact, alright…"

So there it was. They were actually going to do it. They were finally going to rescue Jim Raynor.

She had better get herself and her people ready, fast.

**Imperial Palace, Korhal**

Being the emperor of an interstellar power, Arcturus Mengsk was a rather busy man. The fact that his empire was two steps short of a civil war didn't help either. In times like these, the emperor always found solace in his office on the top floor of the palace; a large, open room with an amazing view of Augustgrad below. Where the only people bothering him would be coming through a single doorway. Here, he could take a break and let his mind rest before tackling the next problem. A place where he could briefly forget just how desperate his situation was becoming.

So, one can imagine his surprise when he found a rather curious man sitting in _his_ office, with his feet on _his_ desk, drinking _his_ brandy, while smiling like there's nothing wrong with this picture.

"You know, in most societies, it's considered polite to call before showing up in someone's office. I might not have time for you."

"Very true. Unfortunately, I was preoccupied with other matters." The stranger spoke with an unusual accent, one that the emperor couldn't quite place. As Mengsk walked to his desk, he got a good look at his 'guest': a dark-skinned man in his thirties that seemed oddly familiar. "Time is such a curious thing, isn't it? Absolute and relative at the same time. Always running out when you need it most. As if the universe is toying with lesser beings like you and I."

"I'm not in the mood for mind-games. How did you get in here, anyway? I don't remember leaving the door open."

"There is an open door to every room, Emperor Mengsk. You need only find it." The man answered, cryptically.

"That's rich. I'll probably make a fortune when my ghosts sell the transcripts of your interrogation to a fortune cookie manufacturer. Unless, of course, you stop wasting my precious time and start talking. As you just said, time always runs out when you need it most. So, how about we start with a name?"

The stranger seemed utterly unfazed by Mengsk's threats. He took another sip of his drink before continuing. "Who I am is irrelevant. However, for the sake of conversation, you may call me Samir Duran."

That name. Mengsk remembered that name. "I know you. You led a group of turncoats and sided with the UED. Then you ended up working against them as part of the Zerg Swarm. An interesting career, if I may say so myself."

"You remember me. I'm flattered."

"I make it a point to remember all my enemies, or at least the ones that haven't been 'dealt' with yet. So, give me one good reason not two call security and have you dragged off in chains."

Once again, Duran calmly took a sip of his drink, only to underline the fact that he didn't fear the emperor's wrath for even a moment. Arrogant bastard. "I have a proposition for you. One you can ill afford to decline, given the rather precarious state of your empire."

"You must have gotten some bad information, Mr. Duran. The Dominion has taken a blow, but it hasn't fallen over just yet. Nor will it, for the foreseeable future." A bluff, but that was part of the course. If Duran bought it, Mengsk would appear to be in a much stronger bargaining position than he actually was when his guest finally got to the bloody point.

"If that is true, then I feel very sorry for you. It must be frightening, not being able to see what's right in front of you." The patronizing son-of-a-bitch paused, seemingly waiting for Mengsk to lose his cool and explode. He had no intention of granting that pompous bastard the satisfaction, however. "In all honesty, the state of your empire is of little consequence to me or my employer. I am more interested in the Zerg. Or, more specifically, their destruction."

"Didn't you used to work for them?"

Duran laughed. "One of my better jobs, I think. The Queen of Blades was a crafty and highly capable opponent. Still is, as you are undoubtedly aware. Unfortunately, it has been decided that it is time for her, and her species, to join the annals of history. This puts me in the uncomfortable position of asking for your help."

Now, things got interesting. "I see. So, what do you need so badly that you'd risk life and limb just to talk with me about it?"

"Over the past few months, many of the sector's leading scientific corporations have decided to set up their facilities right here on Korhal, believing themselves to be safer in the capital than in the colonies. I want to use those labs to mass-produce the weapons that my employer needs to destroy the Swarm."

"Well, I'm glad we share a mutual dislike of the Zerg. That still doesn't explain why _I_ would want to help _you_. What makes you think I can't defeat the Zerg on my own?"

"A nearly annihilated fleet over Dead Man's Rock and an empire that is on the verge of civil war gave that away. I am aware that you have soldiers patrolling the streets to keep order and make the Dominion appear strong and in control. We both know, however, that this is just an illusion. If the Zerg wanted to, they could crush the Dominion with ease. Now, as I said, the destruction of the Dominion, or the human race in general, means little to me. If you do not give me the aid I need, I will find someone who will. Make no mistake, I _will_ succeed regardless, but not in time to save you. Give me what I need, and I will make sure that you get all the credit for what comes next. Deny me, and there won't be a Dominion left to rule." Duran's voice was so calm, so even, that it was impossible to see any of his words as a threat. No, to him, it was a certainty. He made it abundantly clear that he didn't _need_ Mengsk, that coming here was a favor to the emperor.

Oh, how Arcturus hated this man.

Oh, how he needed his help, pride be damned.

"Alright, Mr. Duran. What do you have in mind?"


	82. Chapter 82

**Bridge, Leviathan, Deep Space**

Covert meetings generally took place in locations that were quite far from the beaten path and no place was further than the middle of interstellar space. Out there, it didn't matter what you did or who you contacted. Unless someone had the exact coordinates to your location, no one would ever know you were there. The sheer vastness of space became your shield.

Kerrigan's current rendezvous was no different: a quick drop-off of a passenger and her equipment. Still, the fact that the meeting had to take place in what was literally the middle of nowhere was a little insulting. It basically insinuated that Valerian didn't want to be seen around her. As if she was the political version of the bubonic plague. It was pretty much true, of course, no matter how badly she wanted to believe otherwise, which made this whole mess even more painful. Still, it was a little offensive to be considered persona non grata when you don't really deserve it.

The downside of meeting in places like these is that it often took a while for the person you're supposed to be meeting with to find you. Still, the downtime gave Kerrigan an opportunity to familiarize herself with the coming mission. The White Star itself wasn't that big of a problem on its own. If the Zerg would be able to sneak up on it and board the vessel, the battle would essentially be over. No, the biggest problem was the ship's location. The Dominion commander had decided to put the ship on the edge of Umojan territory, which complicated matters. Officially, the Umojans were more or less neutral in the sector's conflicts. Unofficially, they hated the Zerg as much as everyone else did. While the Umojan fleets were laughable when compared to the Dominion's (or her own for that matter), the Umojans compensated with stealth, subterfuge and a sizable technological edge over their opponents. Knowledge is power and they knew everything about practically everyone. This had always been their saving grace: no human power had ever dared attack them for fear of what they could pull out of their big bag of spy tricks. It just wasn't worth it. Would the Zerg fare better, if the worst came to be? The queen decided she didn't want to find out anytime soon.

Now, Kerrigan was going to invade their territory to eliminate a Dominion ship. Or at least, that's what the humans would call this little stunt when they would inevitably find out about it. Boarding a warship to extract a wanted criminal is the sort of thing that tends to get frowned upon by the public. Once again, Kerrigan found herself longing for the days where she could just do her job and leave the bullshit to the higher-ups.

Then, of course, came the matter of boarding the ship itself. Contrary to what the vids like to depict, boarding is not that common and certainly not as heroic and romantic. First, you have to find an enemy ship and _not_ blow it up. With the kind of weapons available to starships today, that wasn't nearly as easy as it sounded. One stray impact in a fuel tank and the ship would explode. Then came the boarding itself. Narrow corridors, no cover, bulkhead by bulkhead fighting… It would almost always turn into a slow and bloody grind through the vessel as you tried to reach your objective. Even ghosts had trouble with it: with so little open space and a blast door every ten meters, sneaking around was essentially impossible. The only thing a ghost could do in situations like that is to go after the objective when most of the ship's crew is busy fighting a distraction team. At least the Zerg would have the distraction part covered…

The absolute worst part of this style of combat was the uncertainty, a ghost's deadliest opponent. You never really knew what you would find. Every ship was unique in some way: a corridor could be blocked thanks to battle damage, a cargo hold could have been converted into something else if needed. Terran ships were highly modular by design and their thick armor made it difficult to tell if the room you were about to invade was a heavily defended armory or the ship's mess hall. To make matters worse, the general in question had decided to heavily modify the White Star and, as luck would have it, Valerian couldn't get the most recent blueprints. The one he did have, that of a standard Gorgon-class battlecruiser, would almost certainly be useless. So, basically, the best plan Kerrigan could come up with thus far was 'shoot the damn thing's warp drives and wing it from there'. She sincerely hoped that Nova would have a better one.

Finally, Valerian's transport ship managed to find them and pulled alongside the leviathan. Kerrigan could practically feel the terror of the vessel's crew. It was odd, strangely enough. The leviathan was probably the closest thing to a home she had nowadays. Correction, the closest thing she's had to a home since she was conscripted by the Confederate Ghost Program. It wasn't pretty, but it was quite cozy if you ignored the smell. And the squishing under your boots. And the Zerg. Oh well, their loss. Quietly, though, she hoped that Jim wouldn't be too upset about flying around in this thing, at least until they'd meet up with the Hyperion.

The ship dropped of Valerian's ghost, along with enough firepower to wipe out a platoon. Good. Where they were going, she'd probably need it. Now that Kerrigan thought about it, she realized that she could use some new ammo as well. All in due time, however. The ship took off almost instantly after landing, seemingly afraid that she'd decide they'd make an excellent lunch. So much for allies trusting one another…

"Agent Nova Terra, reporting for duty, Ma'm." The ghost said, rather cheerily for someone who was looking at the person that nearly killed her. Twice.

"I'm not your CO, Nova." The queen could understand why Nova acted as though she was. The girl had to know that she wouldn't trust her blindly again.

"According to Prince Valerian, you are for now. He doesn't like it, but hey, job comes first."

"Good to know. I'd hate having to slam you into another wall." Kerrigan smirked. It was good to know that people still appreciated pre-mission banter. Reminded everyone they were still human. Mostly. "You know what they say about third times?"

"Don't worry, I won't try to murder you again. I think I can trust you enough that you'll extend the same courtesy."

Well, that was a first. "Never thought I'd see the day that the word 'trust' would ever be applied to me again…"

"I guess so. The way I figure, though, if you wanted to kill me, you would have done so already. Since I'm still breathing and in control of my own body, I think that it's safe to take you at your word for now. Besides, I do, kind off, owe you one for getting that chip out of my brain." If only the rest of the sector could be so forgiving…

"Well, thanks. That means a lot." Kerrigan replied, with sincerity.

"You're welcome. Now, I've got a plan of action that will get us on that cruiser. I'm sure you're dying to hear it."

Straight to business. Good. "Alright, shoot."

**Cargo Hold, Leviathan, Deep Space**

Lilith looked on towards the leviathan's 'bridge', noticing that her boss was chatting with the new arrival. Probably the ghost lady that everyone said would be coming to help them. It was a little strange, though. When UNN mentioned anything about psychics or ghosts, it was usually about how dangerous they were and about how they could destroy the Dominion's enemies just by thinking about it. Now, she was sharing a ship with one of the most lethal individuals in the Dominion. Quite scary when you think about it. That said, the boss wouldn't have let her board if there was a chance she'd turn violent. Nah, boss knew what she was doing.

Since she couldn't hear their conversation and felt it was rude to eavesdrop, Lilith went down to one of the holds where Tiberias hung out, cleaning guns. While she considered the older infested Terran to be her friend, he did seem to have a mild obsession with maintaining his weapons. And acting as a housekeeper. And a plumber. So maybe he had a mild obsession with keeping himself occupied. At any rate, it was nice to have someone to talk to, even if he could be rather depressing at times.

"Hey Tai, did you meet our new guest?"

"Who, Nova? That blond ghost woman that showed up a little while ago? Not yet. Not looking forward to it either, to be honest."

"Why, you know her?"

"Last time we met, I had to knock her unconscious to keep her from killing the queen, so yes, you could say I know her."

Lilith had to do a double take. "Wait, what?"

Tiberias put his gun down and leaned back into an alcove; Lilith recognized this as his trademark story-telling position. "Long story. Let's just say that the Dominion likes to make sure that its ghosts don't go AWOL and implanted her with some sort of control chip. Someone, probably the emperor or one of his subordinates, activated it when she was in her majesty's presence and we had to disable her. So…extenuating circumstances. Don't hold it against her."

"Oh, I won't. If she was dangerous to us, boss would have kicked her off the ship already. Still, she's a ghost…"

"So was her majesty…" Cain reminded her.

"Fine, a DOMINION ghost. I don't usually buy what I hear from UNN, but when I see the pieces they do on the Ghost Program… They just seem so cold. Like they could shoot me and not feel a thing…"

"That's probably because they _can_ shoot you and not feel a thing." Tiberias deadpanned.

"Not helping."

"I'm serious. I don't know all the details, but from what I've heard, after the ghosts are trained, the Dominion erases all their childhood memories. Specifically, the parts that tell them how to be...well, human."

Lilith didn't know if she was supposed to be horrified or confused. She knew the Dominion was capable of great evil, but this seemed almost cartoonish. Not to mention a bit illogical. "Wait, that doesn't make sense. Why would they erase their memories _after_ their training? Why not before, so that you start with a clean slate?"

"Don't ask me, I don't work for them. At any rate, you're missing the point. The thing is, out of all the operatives out of the Dominion Ghost program, the only one who won't murder us without hesitation is the one currently chatting with her majesty on the bridge, at least, for now. She's on our side for the moment. No telling what she'll do in the future."

Assuming that there even was a future. Lilith immediately shut the thought down, however. The hybrid story, was as horrible as it was fantastic. She didn't want to believe it, but she was certain that Cain wouldn't lie to her about something like this. Better to go off on a random tangent. "You know, for a soldier, she's very good looking…"

"Really?"

"Well, look at her. It's not like the suit leaves much to the imagination. You think she moonlights as a swimsuit model?"

"Lilith, I know you like to run off on a tangent every now and then, but are we actually having this conversation?"

It took a few moments for the girl to catch onto Cain's train of thought. "What?! No, no, that's not what I meant! It's just…weird, that's all. I think she must be really uncomfortable in that suit. Not to mention the hair. She must be spending a fortune on care products just to keep it from turning into a tangled mess. Does the Dominion actually give them a beauty stipend? I mean, seriously, when I joined the militia, I just shaved my head. Keep it from clogging up the helmet seals. Hostile environments must be hell for her. My point is, what sort of idiotic excuse of a military organization lets their members look like contestants in a beauty pageant?"

"Probably the kind cooked up by a guy with a lousy sex life." Tiberias sighed, visibly uncomfortable. "Now, can we please talk about something other than girl talk? I know I've been rather detached from the rest of human society for the past three years, but I'm pretty sure that gossiping about newcomers is still considered a bit tacky. Especially when said newcomer can kill you with her mind."

"Oh, c'mon, she won't do that. She seems to be getting along just fine with the boss. She can't be all bad." Truth be told, Lilith didn't really believe that, but she wasn't about to let Cain's inexhaustible pessimism get the best of her.

"Did I mention that I nearly had to kill her last time we met? Besides, for people like you and me, there are three kinds of humans out there."

"I'm not going to like your assessment, am I?" Lilith interrupted, but Tai continued regardless.

"Type one: Flight or Fight variety. The kind that is convinced we are their mortal enemies and will either shoot us on sight, or crap their pants and run away, screaming. Type two: The Users. The kind that sees us as a resource to be exploited for their own ends. They may make alliances with us, but they don't really care about our kind. Needless to say, they'll turn on us the instant that we've outlived our usefulness. Nova, Valerian, and the Raiders, they belong in that category. Trust me, nobody wants to share the galaxy with the Zerg. Like I said, I honestly don't see a lasting peace happening unless the Swarm decides to simply disappear. Too much bad blood between us."

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't try…"

"Maybe. It's not up to us anyway. Let the queen handle that sort of mess. Politics just isn't my thing. Too much lying and backstabbing. An absolute monarchy does have its perks, I think."

"I guess… What's the third kind of human?"

"The kind that wants to 'save' you. Like we're in some sort of cult or that we can be 'cured' by some occult ritual. I hope to God I'll never meet one of those again. It took me a week to get the stink of garlic out of my scales… Crazy old bat."

"I don't think I even want to know." Given Cain's unusual experiences over the years, Lilith decided that ignorance was bliss and to leave it at that.

"Trust me, you don't. Still, that's not the point I'm trying to make. Nova may be here with the best of intentions, but ultimately, she's not here to save anyone aside from her fellow man. Don't forget that. People are only altruistic when they have everything they need."

"Doesn't mean I can't be friends with her. Not everything needs to be for the greater good, you know. We all have a right to be a little selfish sometimes." Even as the words left her mouth, Lilith realized just how 'un-Zerg' she sounded. It actually felt good saying that. Not that she should probably show it.

"Don't let Abathur hear you say that…" Tiberias sighed. "Look, I'm not your dad. You don't need my permission to do anything. Just don't get too attached to her, or to anyone else for that matter. People tend to disappoint and I don't like seeing you hurt."

"You're growing soft on me, aren't you?" Lilith teased. It was always nice to know that someone still cared about you.

"Don't get any ideas."


	83. Chapter 83

_A/N So, in case you haven't heard, Heart of the Swarm comes out 12__th__ of March, 2013. First thought: WOOHOO! Second thought: What the devil took them so long?! Two years, dammit! What have they been doing all that time, actually playing the bloody game? _

**Bridge, White Star, Deep Space**

Captain Williams was worried. One might say that that is perfectly normal for a captain of a ship that's spying on the people who pretty much invented modern spycraft. Even more so if said ship is hunted by the Zerg, as well as commanded by a maniac. True, those thing were definitely worth worrying about. But for once, those problems seemed minor compared to the one he's scratching his head over now.

The Umojans are, in many ways, like a Geiger counter: the more noise they make, the more worried you should be. Right now, the Umojans were buzzing like a swarm of bees whose hive just got carpet bombed. They were mobilizing their fleet. All of it. At once. Something that hasn't happened since the Guild Wars. That wasn't just a cause to worry; that was the kind of thing that would make grown men defecate masonry.

The Umojans were not a war-like people. Part of it was their small population and limited production capabilities. They simply didn't have the manpower or the materials for a total war. However, the biggest reason why they never mobilized was that they really didn't have to: their intelligence services allowed them to win wars before the first shot was even fired. Even if they were outmatched, they could still use it to confuse or placate their enemies long enough to assassinate someone important and save their little empire. The only reason Williams could think of for them to circle the wagons like this was that something scared them. Which means that everybody else should be too: there aren't many things that could scare the people who knew almost anything.

But what could that thing possibly be? Maybe Raynor's hybrids? Another Zerg invasion? Something worse?

"Captain, a ship just showed up on sensors. It's the fuel tanker we've been expecting." One of the bridge officers reported, snapping Williams out of his daydream. Back to work it was. "They're hailing us." Work was good. Kept his mind of things that would probably drive him mad.

"Power up the weapons and scan their vessel. Make sure that there aren't any Zerg on board. Blow them out of the sky if there are." A typical standing order from General Morrigan, making sure that no Zerg would ever come into contact with the White Star or her crew. As much as the captain hated it, he couldn't deny the necessity. Right now, anonymity and the vastness of space were the ship's only real protection. He couldn't afford to give that up under any circumstance.

"Scanning…vessel is clean, sir. They're still hailing us. Do you want me to answer them?"

"Yes. Tell them to move alongside starboard refueling port C. If they try anything funny, we'll turn them into space dust."

"Geez, sir, you sound like the general." One of the officers said. Truth be told, hearing this bothered Williams much more than he let on. He knew he had to appear compassionate and strong to his men as a counterbalance to Morrigan's barely contained fury, but it didn't always worked. Façades have a habit of cracking at the worst possible time.

"Just do it, lieutenant."

"Yes sir…oh, boy. That's not good." Looking out the window, Williams would agree. Without warning, bundles of light began dancing across the freighter. "Sir, the ship is firing its flares. It's wreaking havoc with our sensors." Flares were a common defense in older or civilian vessels. Being little more than large, disposable canisters filled with light-emitting chemicals, they were relatively cheap and could be used to ward of the guided missiles that pirates, who usually couldn't afford to put laser batteries on their ships, were fond of using. At close ranges, however, they could also be used by crafty (or suicidal) captains to temporarily blind enemy vessels. Ships with sensitive sensor equipment, like the White Star, were especially vulnerable. "The freighter insists it's a programming glitch and that they had nothing to do with this. Apparently, I should never trust a pretty blond with a nice ass to fix my computer…"

Williams sighed. It seemed awfully convenient that this would happen here and now. It almost felt like a set-up. Still, they really needed the fuel, so he couldn't afford to just tell them to leave and wait for the next one. "Tell them to move to the refueling port the minute they fix the flare problem. And someone start recalibrating our sensor array. We need that if we want to use the warp drive and I hate being left without an escape route."

The bridge exploded into activity as everyone got to their duties, giving Williams a few minutes to himself. A reprieve that was rudely interrupted when the ship suddenly shook. That damn freighter must have rammed them! He was about to demand an explanation when he noticed something missing.

He couldn't see any stars outside the windows…

Almost on cue, the general burst through the door. "What the hell was that? Status report, now!" He barked.

The officers on deck looked around nervously, before one of them had the courage to say: "Uhh, sir, it looks like we're surrounded by some sort of Zerg biomass. We don't have all the details yet, but…"

"It appears we've been swallowed, sir." The captain interrupted, having put everything together in his head. He could barely that he was able to say it with a straight face: They've actually been swallowed by a giant monster like in some ancient fairy tale. It would almost be funny if it had happened to anyone else.

"Swallowed, then…I'm guessing it's the same damn monster that ripped apart our fleet at Dead Man's Rock." The general muttered. "So, how about we try getting it to spit us out? Forward laser batteries, fire at will. See what damage we can do to this thing."

"But, sir, we can't get a firing solution without…"

"It's not like was can miss, lieutenant." The general barked. "Now, fire!"

"Yes, sir, firing forward laser batteries…negligible damage. If we still had a yamato cannon…" The officer complained.

"Well, we don't have those things, now do we? Try scanning for a weakness in the armor, or an open nerve, or…"

"General!" Another officers suddenly called out as the ship began to shake once again. "We have hull breaches in main engineering and on decks 3, 4, and 7. Sir, they're trying to board us!"

For the first time since this whole debacle started, the deck became deadly silent. They were trapped inside a giant monster, being boarded by the Zerg. Everyone knew how this was probably going to end.

"Well, figured it would end something like this…" The general mumbled to himself. "Captain, you know this ship best. I want you to direct the crew and get them to secure the engineering decks. In the mean time, I'll try to find the codes to the reactor. They should be somewhere in the ship's manifest…"

Williams couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was only one reason why anyone, apart from the engineers, would ever want to access the fusion reactor. "Sir, you can't possibly be thinking about scuttling the ship, _with us still on board_."

"Williams, if you ever want to make a solid command decision, one of the most important things you need to know is your enemies objective. Now, since the Zerg haven't atomized this ship already, I can only assume that they want something on this ship, probably data or battle plans. We can't let them have it."

"So we're all supposed to just kill ourselves?!" Disagreeing with a commander on the battlefield was considered to be a deadly sin for a soldier, but Williams would be damned if he was going to let that maniac blow him and his crew to smithereens without a fight.

The general sighed and looked him straight in the eye. Much to Williams' surprise, he didn't see the raw fury that was usually there. Now, Morrigan's eyes just seemed…empty. "Captain, what do you think is going to happen to us, now? The escape pods aren't going to help us. Whatever the Zerg want, we're not walking away from this. Not as ourselves anyway. I'm sure you agree that they're not going to take what they want and go away. We're all dead men walking. Right now, the only thing we can do for ourselves and the crew is make sure that there's nothing left for the Zerg to take. Now, get me my damn reactor!"

With that, the general left, leaving rest of the crew in stunned silence. This was it. This was the end. There was no way out of this one. Morrigan finally found a way to get them all killed. Damn him and his stupid mission. Damn the bloody Zerg.

The only solace they had left is that their deaths would be instantaneous.

**Access shaft B, White Star, Deep Space**

"You know, you really shouldn't stand in front of the blast door."

"I'm fine, Lilith. Just hack the damn thing already."

"If there's anyone on the other side…"

"They'll shoot me instead of anyone else. I'm the guy with the thickest carapace around here, remember? I'll be fine."

Tiberias wasn't exactly happy with the situation. Boarding Terran ships had never been a favored pastime for him. It was just too easy for the defenders: they knew the terrain and the Zerg's numbers would matter little in those damn tight corridors. Not to mention that nothing bigger than Zerglings or a Hydralisk could fit through the corridors. Operations like these had a tendency of becoming very messy, very fast. Today, however, messy was exactly the point. Lilith and he had been given the unenviable task of spearheading the distraction team. Their job was to head to the bridge, download anything they could find from the computers there and make it look like an information raid instead of a break-out. In other words, they got to wade through a sea of bullets and gore for, essentially, nothing in particular. How lovely. Still, better them than the queen this time.

Lilith finally managed to bypass the locks on the door and opened it up. Tiberias immediately found himself staring in the face of a bright, red helmet. One belonging to a firebat. He instantly dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding the stream of fire that only stopped once Larry the Hunter-Killer launched a spine through the man's visor.

"See? That's why we don't stand in front of the blast door. You're no good to anyone barbequed, you idiot." The girl admonished. Strangely enough, her voice carried more worry than anger.

"I'm not dead yet, am I?" Tai smirked. He's been surviving servitude in the Swarm for three years in spite, or maybe because, his 'idiotic' behavior, so he must be doing something right. She didn't have to worry about him. It wasn't like he was irreplaceable anyway.

Lilith ignored him further and started working on the next door. It was quite surprising how easily she was able to cut through the doors' security. Then again, she was a IT expert in her human life. And she had Dominion security codes, courtesy of that wonderful ghost the queen had borrowed. And she had an adjutant backing her up to. So maybe it wasn't that surprising. Then again, what did he know about hacking anyway? For all he knew, she was just pressing random buttons, trying to show off…

Another door opened, revealing a group of marines that needed dispatching. To the humans' credit, they were still fighting in spite of the hopelessness of it all. Most of them were probably resocs, but still. They must have been aware by now that there was no way out and figured that if they were destined to die today, they might as well go down fighting. A pity that their heroism was, essentially, pointless. The Zerg had no intention of killing everyone. In fact, Tiberias had been told to minimize casualties if possible, 'if possible' being the key phrase in that sentence. Just about everyone they met tried shooting them. Even if they didn't, they were trying to lock the door or place a booby trap. It was nearly impossible _not_ to shoot them.

If the humans thought they had nothing to lose anymore, there was no telling what they could do. Especially if said humans were led by his old friend Jack Morrigan. Knowing Jack, he would never allow himself, or anyone else on this ship, to be captured alive if it could be avoided. While the Zerg had taken care of the biggest threat on the ship (namely the reactor) when they took engineering, someone like Morrigan wouldn't be thwarted by that alone. As time went on, Tiberias couldn't help but feel more and more paranoid. Things were running far too smoothly. He was practically begging for something to happen, just to satiate his suspicions.

"Is it just me, or has everyone here just thrown in the towel?" Tiberias asked no one in particular.

"Didn't you almost get cooked five minutes ago? Didn't we just kill another squad of marines on the way here? What else are you expecting? Hidden snipers? Spider mines? A giant robotic panther?"

"Don't give the bad guys more ideas. This is Morrigan we're talking about. You never know what he'll…" He was cut off by a sharp piece of metal slamming into his shoulder. "Dammit, more soldiers. Get to cover."

"I can't see them…"

"Of course you can't," Cain grunted "the one who shot me used a C-20. They're bloody ghosts. They have cloaking devices."

"Well, that's just wonderful…Wait, how did you know what gun he was using if you can't see them?"

"Bullet went straight through the plates, lodged itself in my shoulder blade and felt like a hollow-point. Definitely a C-20."

"You can tell what guns people are using by how much the bullet hurts?" Lilith asked, incredulously. "You get shot a lot, don't you?"

"Occupational hazard." Cain replied. As he stuck his head out to look for his attacker, he solemnly promised himself that he'd be more careful with what he wished for in the future.

**Deck 7, White Star, Deep Space**

It is often said that you only learn to really appreciate something (or someone) after it's been taken from you. For Kerrigan, truer words have rarely been spoken. Ever since the White Star has 'docked' inside the behemoth, she could feel Raynor's presence radiating from it. She felt drawn to it in a way that just felt alien to her. It was quite unsettling, really. It had never happened before, not even the last time on Char. Even then, she was still pragmatic enough to allow herself to be used as a distraction and let someone else take care of the rescue. Now, however…

Kerrigan had always been drawn to Raynor, as was to be expected, but in barely noticeable ways. Small things, like how she unconsciously turned to him whenever he entered the room, or how everyone's mental voice just sort of disappeared if he was in range. Nothing like what she was experiencing now. It was as if she suddenly developed the world's worst case of tunnel-vision. All that seemed to matter to her was getting to Raynor and vaporize anything that stood in her way. It actually took conscious effort to force herself out of her fixation. Almost losing control like this was frightening to a person who always had to fight to maintain some semblance of direction over her own fate, yet she couldn't bring herself to completely stop it.

Kerrigan dodged for cover as a desperate crewman tried to shoot her. With a flick of her wrist, the poor soul was launched into a nearby wall with bone-crushing force.

"You know, for someone who insisted on 'stealth' and 'minimal casualties', we're racking up quite the body count." Nova said, already winded from trying to keep up with the Zerg's incredible pace. The ghost had asked to join her on the actual rescue, hoping that her help would convince Raynor that she and Valerian were on his side this time, but she was probably regretting that now. Watching the Zerg do what they do best wasn't for the fainthearted: the poor blonde nearly vomited when Kerrigan used her broodling trick on some unlucky bastard the first time. The queen did see this as a little strange. She had fought Zerg in the past and had been one of the Dominion's top commandos. Surely she would have seen worse?

Nevertheless, her help had been invaluable already. Sabotaging the freighter's flare systems was a master stroke; simple, yet absolutely brilliant. The way it had blinded the White Star, hell, even the Hyperion could have snuck up on them unnoticed.

Which led to the niggling suspicion that Valerian and the Raiders only agreed to let her do this because they were afraid of what she'd do if they wouldn't…

Couldn't think about that now. Kerrigan tore open another bulkhead with her mind. They were getting closer. She could feel it. They were too close to be stopped now.


	84. Chapter 84

**Access Shaft B, White Star, Deep Space**

Tiberias cursed as another bullet grazed his shoulder. Firefights can be fun. They were a great way to break up the monotony of life, but not like this. Not when you're hiding behind a wall, blindly firing away, hoping that you'd hit something. Therefore, this particular firefight _wasn't_ fun. Then again, fighting ghosts rarely was, especially at range. Ghosts were fast, sneaky and really good shots. In a battle like this, the odds were clearly stacked against them.

He noticed Lilith furiously typing away at a console. "What are you doing?!"

No sooner did he finish the question, when the ship's fire suppression system sprung to life. "Giving us something to shoot at."

Almost immediately, the room was blanketed in a fine mist that began to cling to their cloaked opponents. While they were still little more than blurs, it was still much better than before. Clever girl. "Good, now close the doors in front of us. I don't want them to slip away." Without waiting for a response, Cain hurled himself out of cover and charged the three barely-visible figures in front of him. Ghost might have him outmatched in a gunfight, but not in close combat. Or at least, that was the theory.

"'Close the doors.' Right, just 'close the doors' in the middle of a firefight on a Dominion warship. No, no problem at all. I mean, it's not like there's a military-grade firewall preventing me from doing that and that you _don't _need to be a qualified computer tech to even try to get rid of it. Sure, any idiot can do it."

Tiberias ran in guns blazing, forcing his opponents into cover. One of the ghosts jumped into his path, trying to take aim with his rifle. He saw an easy target and bolted towards it. The target was nimble, however, and dodged aside, leaving him to slam face-first into the wall behind him. Now thoroughly pissed off, Cain lashed out with the butt of his rifle, hoping to strike the man off-balance. The ghost was fast, but not fast enough. All the reflexes in the universe can't save you if you have no room to maneuver. The man buckled as the weapon crashed into his stomach. Tai saw an opportunity and he took it. He bear-hugged his victim, grabbed the head and rammed it into the neo-steel bulkhead until he could feel the skull crack under his hands.

"You know, techs like me don't get any respect these days. It's like we all grow on trees or something. I'm not asking for the key to the city here. I would just really, really appreciate it if someone shows a little gratitude for the people who make sure all the computers work properly. You know, those little machines that make our entire society go round?"

The second ghost wasted no time mourning his fellow. With the grace of a professional, he unsheathed his combat knife and planted it straight into Tiberias' neck. To a human, a fatal blow. To a Zerg, with redundant blood vessels, carapace reinforcements, and high-speed regeneration, not so much. Cain tried to elbow the culprit, but once again, his opponent evaded him. Out of frustration, he tore the knife out of his body and threw it towards the closest shimmer in the mist. The knife connected, the sheer force of the impact staggering the woman, giving Larry the chance to impale her into the wall with a volley of armor piercing spines.

"But you know what's the worst thing about my job? Everyone seems to think they know better than you. Doctors don't have that problem. Neither do architects or gun salesmen. No, we all take their word for it when they're talking about their areas of expertise. But IT experts? 'Oh, but my cousin Jonny says…' Yeah, like I give a damn. I studied this crap, they didn't. So, yes, I do know better. But I can't say that to their faces because 'the customer/boss is always right'. God, I really hate my job sometimes."

The blast doors began to close behind them, trapping Cain and the final ghost. Driven into a corner, the two were forced resort to hand-to-hand combat: Academy-trained martial arts for one, un-trained fisticuffs for the other. The ghost was frighteningly fast and deadly precise. He moved like water, dodging, weaving and making every strike count. Unfortunately for him, he might as well be hitting a brick wall. Zerg carapace was not unlike military-grade armor: Even with the psi-sensitive artificial muscle in his environment suit enhancing every hit, he would have a better chance kung-fu-ing his way through a suit of power armor than striking a killing blow against the infested Terran in front of him. Tiberias knew this better than anyone. He was much larger and stronger than his opponent and planned on abusing his advantage to the fullest. If he could grapple his opponent, he could pound the ghost into gravy with ease. If only the slippery bastard would stand still for a few seconds…

"Oh, and when everything goes wrong, guess who's fault it is? 'Lilith, the computer's got a virus. Fix it and don't let it happen again!' Well, maybe I could, if you would stop downloading that damn illegal hydralisk porn, you pervert. Bloody idiots."

Finally, the ghost slipped up and Cain got a hold over his hand. Without hesitation, the infested Terran crushed his wrist, twisted his arm out of his socket, and forced him to the ground, before finishing him off with a foot rammed through the man with all the force the Zerg could muster. Tiberias felt his heart rate lower again. With the adrenaline being pumped out of his blood stream, he actually started to feel the blows to his body. To his surprise (and annoyance), the ghosts hit significantly harder than he thought was humanly possible. They actually bruised him. _Bruised_ him, through his carapace. Sure, they were humanity's finest, but still…

"For once, I'd like to be appreciated. Don't want to sound too arrogant, but people like me are kind off invaluable in this day and age. You know, maybe if someone said 'please' or 'thank you', every now and then, I might have liked my job in Mar Sara city too much to run off to the militia. I wouldn't be stuck in a body that doesn't look anything like my own, hacking into a Dominion ship I've no business being on while trying not to get shot by freaking ghost operatives…"

"Are you finished?" Tiberias interrupted.

"Yeah, I'm finished." Lilith replied, almost guiltily. "How the hell did you kill three ghosts by yourself?"

"Martial arts are overrated. Now, open the doors again. We have to keep going."

"You didn't hear a single word I just said, did you?"

"Well, I was rather busy trying to save your sorry hide from the invisible jerks. Now…_please _open the door…" After Lilith obliged, she glared at him, as if waiting for something. "Umm…Thank you?"

"Now, was that so hard?"

**Deck 7, White Star, Deep Space**

"Slow down!"

Kerrigan barely registered Nova's shouting and chose to ignore it. They had more important things to do than to stop and talk. There was no need slow down her pace. She didn't feel tired. Why bother taking a break? Jim was still out there in the hands of Mengsk's cronies. There was no time to waste.

"Slow down already, dammit. You're gonna get us all killed!" Kerrigan ignored the distraction again, until someone grabbed her arm, forcing her to stop. She was about to turn around and reduce the guilty party to ashes when the more rational part of her mind reminded her that it was only Nova. An ally. Someone she _shouldn't_ kill. "Hey! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Wrong with me?" The queen snapped back. "The brig is just a few bulkheads down this corridor, and we're…"

"Sitting here, discussing how we're going to get past the past the spider mines and the predator unit stationed right behind the next bulkhead." Nova hissed angrily.

Kerrigan felt a little surprised. Spider mines were bad. Even if you were cloaked, they would still be able to blow your legs off when you got to close. She should have been warned about this. "Why didn't you…"

"Tell you sooner? I only found out about five seconds ago when your adjutant crammed the information into my head," The ghost shifted uncomfortably. Apparently she didn't like interfacing with the Zerg telepathic collective very much. "and she only did that because she couldn't get through to you. Apparently you were too occupied. Too much 'static' for a proper connection. So, let's sit down and think how we're going to fix this. I don't know much about Zerg physiology, but I'm pretty sure you can't regenerate from tiny bits and pieces."

Yes, she was right. Of course she was. They shouldn't rush in blindly and Kerrigan was no good to Jim dead. She quickly sorted through the scans of the vessel that Izsha had made before they boarded, before coming up with a solution. "If we have a few EMP grenades, we can disable the mines from a distance. They won't do much good against guards or any other mechs we come across, but between our own abilities and the Zerg, we can handle those ourselves. There should be an armory…that way, so we can…"

"I brought EMP grenades with me, but that isn't the problem. You rushing off to get to your boyfriend, personal safety be damned, _is_. Calm down already and start acting like a professional."

Kerrigan suppressed the urge to snarl at the ghost. She did not like being lectured, not by anyone. Still, it was the truth, no matter how badly she wanted to deny it. She had to stay calm. She had to let her brain, not her heart dictate her actions, and not just for her own sake. Jim probably wouldn't like being rescued by a crazed Amazon. She tried to tone down her mental radar. By now, they had a good idea where the brig was, so they wouldn't need to rely on psionics to find him. Besides, it was too difficult for her to remain focused if Jim was constantly on her mind.

Without another word, the group moved forward, disabling the mines and reducing the predator unit to a pile of scrap. Guards moved in to bar their way, but to no avail. Even ghosts weren't much of a challenge at this point; Kerrigan had persuaded their bodies that spontaneous human combustion was _not_ an urban legend. The increased resistance didn't bother the invaders much: it only showed them that they were on the right track.

After, from Kerrigan's perspective, an eternity, the Zerg finally reached the brig. "Hold on, let me get the doors open." Nova said. A Zerg queen didn't need doors, however. With little more than sheer force of will, she tore open the reinforced cell door and marched through the hall. "Or you could do that…" Kerrigan ignored the ghost, as well as the rather bewildered stares from the other prisoners. Who were they? Why were they here? It didn't matter. The only prisoner that mattered to her was being held further back. Probably in a higher-security area. Figures.

A techie ran up to her with a pistol, futilely trying to stop her. With a slight of hand, she plucked the bullets from the air with her mind before grabbing the man by the neck. Just as she was to snap him in half for the transgression, Kerrigan remembered that the poor guy couldn't seriously harm her and decided that it would be better to lock him into his own cell. She wasn't a murderer, she reminded herself. Jim would hate her if she was. That said, he would certainly appreciate a little poetic justice.

Another door and a very unlucky ghost later, she finally found what she was looking for. "Sarah…Oof!" Without saying a word, Kerrigan jumped him. No word in the English language would do anyway. She simply stood there, holding the man she loved, letting the wonderful presence that she'd been denied for far too long wash over her. "Well, nice to see you too, darlin'. What took you so long?"

"Got a little side-tracked. You know how it goes."

"Women and driving, huh?" Raynor said, impishly.

"Pig." In truth, she didn't really care what he was saying anymore. Just being there was enough.

"Guilty as charged. Now, I hate to ruin the moment, but could you please let me go? It's getting a little hard to breathe and I think I'm about to break something." Kerrigan let go immediately, not having realized just how hard she had been squeezing him. "Thanks."

"Sorry." She added, guiltily.

"Don't be. It's always nice to know just how much you care. Why you'd want to is beyond me, but, hey? Beggars can't be choosers, right? Anyway, I suppose you've got a plan to get me and my crew out of here, right?"

"Of course. Same way we came in…" Suddenly, Sarah realized that her mind was still in work-mode. "Oh, dammit, Jim, you've been a prisoner for God knows how long. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"Darlin', you look like a mess, and you're worried about me? I'm fine. Or at least, I will be once me and my guys are out of here. Hell, I'd even settle for a ride in one of them leviathans right now."

It was then that Nova decided to make her presence known. "Good for you, because that's the only ticket we have to get off this tub. Oh, by the way, I took the liberty of freeing the rest of your crew, Commander Raynor." She said, deliberately forgoing the use of his first name. After all, the last time the two met, they didn't exactly part as friends. "They won't go anywhere without you, though."

"Nova." Raynor grumbled in return. Turning to Kerrigan: "You know who she is, right?"

Kerrigan calmly replied: "Dominion's top assassin, Valerian's right hand woman, and on our side. Trust me."

"You're working for Junior?!" The commander blurted out, not knowing if he should be surprised or angry. "You know he's half the reason I got stuck here in the first place. How can you even trust him?"

"First of all, I'm working _with_ him, not _for_ him. Big difference. Second of all, yeah, I can trust him. It's really hard to lie when someone is two seconds away from snapping your neck like a breadstick." Kerrigan's smile instantly disappeared when she realized what she just said. "Probably shouldn't have said that out loud…"

The commander snickered. "If it were anyone else, maybe. Him though…"

"I trust him, to an extent. He wants to do the right thing, Jim."

"He's got a really funny way of showing it." Raynor deadpanned.

"I know. Just, trust me on this one, and we'll explain everything when we get back to the Hyperion. A lot has happened since the last time we saw each other."

"Don't I know it." Raynor said. He didn't want to trust Valerian's pet ghost, that much was certain. Eventually, his trust for Kerrigan won over his suspicion of Nova. "If she betrays us…"

"…I'll feed her to a pack of zerglings."

"Fair enough. Alright, darlin', lead the way…"


	85. Chapter 85

**Bridge, White Star, Deep Space**

"That was the Chief Engineer, Captain. He just said that his men were pushed away from the engineering deck again and that he won't have a chance at getting it back unless we send him some reinforcements."

Williams gently put down the cup of coffee he was holding as the officer relayed the bad news. He wanted to scream in anger, to curse heaven and earth, and to go down there himself and show the idiots how a real man gets things done, but he'd only be wasting his time. It wasn't their fault, or his. The Zerg were just too many. No one could have stopped them at this point. It was over, and the captain knew it. Throwing what might well be the last cup of coffee he'll ever drink this side of the grave onto the floor in a fit of rage would help no one.

"Do we have any reinforcements left?" The poor officer turned silent as the grave. The response was very clear. "Figures…"

"Sir, maybe the general…"

"Unless Morrigan can cast a magic spell that makes all the Zerg instantaneously vanish into the ether, I don't think he'll be of much use any more. Tell the chief to…" Suddenly the door opened. A door that was supposed to be on lockdown and shouldn't open without his permission. Suspecting trouble, Williams immediately unholstered his sidearm and took aim. Turns out, he wasn't wrong. He found himself looking at a very tall, very well armed, and very unimpressed infested Terran.

"Oh no, a handgun." He (were genders even relevant to them?) said, in a deeply sarcastic tone. "My one true weakness." The captain realized that he was very much outgunned. Nevertheless, he had a job to do: protect his crew, no matter the cost. He fired three rounds at the creature, but it barely flinched from the impacts. "Really? That's the best you can do? A pistol? No hidden army of Dark Templars, no trapdoor into a cage filled with hungry lions…"

"Tai, what did you say again about giving the universe ideas?" Another one of the infested humans walked through the door. This one was different. Smaller, probably a woman before the Zerg took her, and wearing a coat (why the hell would a Zerg wear a coat?). It wasn't the Queen of Blades, though. The captain could tell that much. She turned to the, now rightfully frightened, bridge crew and said, in a sickeningly sweet, but still surprisingly human tone: "Hello, gentlemen. I'm going to hack into your computers and steal all your juicy military secrets. Does anyone have a problem with that?" The only answer she got was a stunned silence. She smirked. The damned girl seemed to be enjoying herself. "No? Good. We're under orders not to kill people if we can avoid it. Not that it'd be much of a waste, anyway. Still, I'd rather _not_ go on a rampage if I don't have to."

"You expect me to just let you take vital Dominion secrets without a word?" The captain asked, still keeping his weapon, however useless it was, trained on the enemy.

"Think about it this way, Captain." The larger one said. "If you try, Larry" he gestured to the massive hydralisk behind him. "is going to eat you. Now, knowing Larry's table manners, he'll probably try to swallow you whole and choke on the medals and fancy decorations on your uniform, which will lead to him cutting himself on the sharp edges. You wouldn't want to hurt the poor hydralisk, now would you? I mean, look at that cute little face." Williams was certain that there was nothing cute about that twisted piece of hell-spawn. The guy was just messing with him. Or completely insane. Maybe even both. "After that, we'll still get all the data we want. So essentially, pulling that trigger again would be, well, another pointless sacrifice. Then again, if there were three words that described the Dominion military… But I'm getting off-topic. Just stand down. I promise we won't shoot you if you don't give us a reason to." Much to Williams' annoyance, some of his crew actually complied and lowered their weapons. Then again, what could they do? Break their knuckles at them? Shoot them with a pistol that might as well fire spit-balls? No, standing down might be the sensible thing to do. The captain, however, kept his side-arm where it was. If nothing else, he could use it to shoot himself should the Zerg try to capture him alive.

"You named a hydralisk 'Larry'? Why?" One of the officers asked, after she found the courage to do so.

"Because calling him 'Leopold Fitzgerald Maria Von Lichtenstein the Third' is too much of a mouthful" was the answer. Yes, he was messing with them. No doubt about it. "You know how it is in battle. You don't really have time for a name that's got more than two syllables."

Silence ensued, until the smaller, female infested spoke. "Tai, most of the juicy stuff is heavily encrypted. As in, flag officer only. I'll need a top-clearance encryption key if we want to know what's inside _before_ we all die of old age. I'm guessing the good captain doesn't have it…"

"Great." 'Tai' said. "Guess I'll have to ask dear old Jack. Where is the general?" He asked the captain. Williams kept his mouth shut, however. He'd be damned before he'd give them any information willingly, no matter what he felt about his commanding officer. "Ah, the good soldier act. Wonderful. I guess I'll just have to kick down a few doors, then. Shouldn't take that long. The Jack I knew wouldn't stray far from the fight. Kind of surprised he isn't here, actually…" The captain thought it was rather strange that the Zerg seemed so familiar with his superior. Could this be the same creature that spooked Morrigan back on L-540?

"Do you need some back-up?" The smaller Zerg asked, with a surprisingly large amount of concern in her voice.

"Nah, I'll be fine. If I go alone, I might be able to get him to see reason, or at least, knock him out without actually having to kill him. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You dying horribly?"

"See, no loss there. I'll be fine, Lilith." With that, the larger one left. Williams briefly wondered if he should follow, but decided against it. He wouldn't be able to stop the creature from killing Morrigan if it came to that. Part of him wondered if he even should.

With her big friend off to molest the general, the 'female' Zerg started typing away at the computer terminal. She was…odd, in the captain's eyes. So human in her mannerisms. Obviously skilled with technology. Quite easy on the eyes too, for a Zerg, anyway. William's couldn't help but wonder what her life was like before the Zerg took her and turned her into…this. Did she have a family? A career? A future? Did she even remember her old life? Did some part of her resent the Zerg for taking it all away? Did…

"Captain, you're staring."

Williams shrunk away, apologetically, but then lowly moved towards her, leaning on the console next to the one she was working on. "Sorry. Just thinking." Lilith began eyeing him suspiciously, probably seeing this as an invasion of her personal space. "You used to be human, right?"

"Yes." The girl answered, and immediately got back to work.

"And you remember your old life, right?"

"Yes…" She replied, seemingly annoyed that Williams hadn't taken the hint and shut up.

"Do you miss it? Being human, I mean."

Lilith looked up and locked her eyes into his. The soft, yellow glow made it look like she was staring right into his soul. "That's a good question. I've got a better one: why am I not human?"

"Well, you don't look human…" Wasn't it obvious?

"Between genetic engineering and cybernetics, there are plenty of people in the world who look a hell of a lot less human than I do. Why am I not human when they obviously are? Better yet, what does it matter?" The girl said, angrily.

"Of course it matters, you…"

Immediately, Lilith cut him off. "Stow it, captain. I was born and raised on Mar Sara. I've seen more atrocities committed by 'human' soldiers than I care to remember. Trust me, you're no better than the Zerg are."

While Williams would be the first to admit that the Dominion has its flaws, he still felt insulted. "That's a little harsh, don't you think? Yes, in every army, you have a few bad apples, but to write us all off as villains is…"

"…perfectly valid when you're working for a megalomaniac. You don't even have ignorance as an excuse anymore. 'I will rule this sector or see it burned to ashes around me' or something like that. If you're still working for the Dominion by now, than you're either criminally stupid or just as bad as Mengsk is." By now, the girl seemed angry. Not the 'berserker fury' kind, but more like the outrage someone would feel towards a depraved murderer or a terrorist. A very human kind of anger.

Williams chuckled in response. "Bit hypocritical, don't you think? You're working for the Queen of Blades…"

"One: 'Working for' implies that I had a choice in the matter. Two: The Queen of Blades is _dead_. Gone. Kicked the bucket. Pushing up daisies. Off to terrorize the big hive in the sky. Trust me, I know. Her death throes were _not_ a pleasant thing to hear. Three: Even if my boss was a murderous bitch, that doesn't give you the right to just sit by and do nothing while Mengsk keeps terrorizing the innocent. You're a captain. A good one too, if what I've heard is correct. Why haven't you defected to a rebel group already? I know Raynor's Raiders would love to have you. Oh, and don't even think about calling them pirates. We both know that's just propaganda."

Yes, the captain was definitely feeling insulted. "I do what's best for humanity. I'm not proud of all the choices I've made or the people I've had to work with, but in the end, joining a small group of malcontents isn't going to help."

"Bullshit! In just a few weeks, the Raiders went from a single battlecruiser to a small fleet. They saved thousands of lives, destabilized an evil empire and spearheaded the invasion of Char. They aren't a fringe group anymore and you know it. God, you're a captain of a starship. You're supposed to be one of the best and brightest of our species. If you really are the best humanity has to offer, well, then maybe the human race deserves to be destroyed!" The girl took a step back, realizing what she just said, and lowered her head in shame. "Dammit…Congratulations, Captain. In five minutes, you just managed to do something the Zerg couldn't do in weeks: you make me feel ashamed of ever having called myself human."

Williams was about to reply when he suddenly heard a gunshot coming from down the hall. Lilith ran towards it, muttering something along the lines off 'what the hell did he do now' under her breath, leaving Williams in the room with a very large hydralisk. He silently prayed that the damn thing couldn't talk. He didn't know what would be worse: dying, or having another debate with an anti-Dominion, Raider-sympathizing Zerg.

**General's Quarters, White Star, Deep Space**

It didn't take Cain long to find the good general. While the captain had been a stubborn bastard, the rest of the crew wasn't quite so resolute. 'Politely' asking directions worked out a lot better than he expected. Arriving at the appropriate room, he found the door unlocked. Suspecting a trap, he slowly opened the door and jumped away, trying to dodge an explosion that never came. All he found in the room was a pile of papers, some furniture, and a man who looked ten years older than he actually was.

"The room isn't booby-trapped, old friend. You can come in. Not like I can do much to stop you anyway." Morrigan didn't even look up from the table. All he did was stare at a picture frame. It was a picture of two young men with fishing gear. The one on the right was Jack: younger and with far fewer scars than he had now. The other was him. Or at least the human he once was, a lifetime ago. Both were still young and smiling. Innocent. Happy. How much a life can change in a few short years. "You remember where this was taken?"

"Mirror Lake, back home. Our fishing trip, the year you left for the Confederate Army."

"Your uncle's recommendation. Said that we'd catch more fish than we could carry. We sat there for six hours in the middle of winter without a single bite, until the Marshal told us the lake was toxic and that the only thing we'd catch was the cold."

Old memories. Good memories. "You were pissed. You'd sworn that you'd return with a fish the size of my forearm, so we went to the grocery store and bought the two biggest salmons they had for sale. Blew my uncle's mind. Took him almost a year to figure out that we didn't actually catch them." Memories of things they'd both lost. Cain didn't want to relive them again. They were just too painful to watch. "Jack…this isn't a social visit. I need your top-clearance encryption key."

Morrigan leaned back in his chair. "I could say something cliché like 'you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands', but I won't. I'm guessing you need it for whatever it is your girlfriend is trying to steal from my computers, don't you?" Cain didn't answer back, but he knew he didn't have to. Jack was smart enough on his own. "Not that bad looking, all things considered. If you were both still human, I'd congratulate you."

"She isn't my girlfriend, Jack."

"Isn't that what you said about Molly? Right up until the point your dad caught you two doing it in his car?"

"Not one of my finer moments, I admit. But at least I had one that _wasn't_ a one night stand."

"Now, that isn't fair. I've had plenty of girls. My career just didn't leave much time for a serious relationship."

"Hey, you don't need to explain anything to me. I understand. Don't ask, don't tell, right?" He joked. Something was wrong. Tai could feel it. Jack hadn't talked this much about the old times since…ever. Morrigan always saw nostalgia as a weakness. 'Learn from your mistakes and look forward' he often said. Always sounded like a fortune cookie when he did that… "I only need the key, Jack. After that, me and all the Zerg will get off your ship and let you go."

"Just like that, huh?"

"Well, you have a few bodies to clean up…and your ship looks like a dog's chew toy…but, yes, we'll let you go, no strings attached."

"If only I could believe you." Morrigan reached for his belt and pulled out his gun. The infested Terran felt years of combat experience and instinct kick in and immediately lifted his gun. It took every shred of willpower not to pull the trigger. In spite of the fact that he was three feet away from one of the greatest anti-Zerg experts in the Dominion, he couldn't allow himself to do it. Some part of him, a small, long neglected part begged him not to. "Don't worry about it. You know as well as I that I couldn't hurt you with this, even if I tried."

If he wasn't going to shoot Tai with it, then why would he even pull it out? Unless… "Jack, I don't like where this conversation is heading."

Jack chuckled, humorlessly. "I've always wondered: are you a monster wearing my friend's face as a mask, or is the guy I knew in there, somewhere, begging for freedom or death? The way you've been acting the past few years, I can't be sure anymore."

"It's still me, Jack. It's always been me." Cain knew that it wasn't true. Still, part of him wanted to think it was.

"If you really think that, you're only fooling yourself. The real you nearly vomited at the sight of a broken leg. The real you never joined the army because you knew you weren't tough enough for it. The real you wouldn't be able to rip dozens of men apart with his bare hands and still stay sane. Whatever you once were…it's gone now. I know it, and I think you know it as well. But, that's all irrelevant to the thing I have to do now. I know things, Tai. Things that could hurt mankind, possibly even destroy it. Now, I can't stop you from taking any of the data on this ship, but I can make sure that the knowledge in my head won't fall into the hands of the enemy."

Oh, no. Not good. Not good at all. "Jack, give me the key, and I'll leave. I'll take everyone and leave. There won't be a single Zerg on this ship left, I swear it!"

Morrigan simply sighed. "You're a puppet dancing to the tune of the worst mass murderer mankind has ever known. If your queen wants me, you couldn't disobey her, even if you wanted to. If I end up infested…No, I'm afraid I can't take that chance."

With that, the general picked up his weapon and put the barrel against his own head.


	86. Chapter 86

**White Star, Deep Space**

There is a phrase in the English language: saved by the bell. It usually doesn't apply to gunshots, but for just this one time, Lilith made an exception. Anything that could be used as an excuse to get off the bridge and away from that damned Dominion captain. It hurt to think about him. She wanted to strangle the son-of-a-bitch for playing his 'holier than thou' card on her. She wasn't fighting for the wrong side here. The Dominion was evil, at least as much as the Zerg ever were. Sure, it may not seem that way to most, but most didn't know the things she did. At least the Zerg are willing to change, to fight the good fight when the situation demanded it. They could have ran for the hills, retreated into the void where all the terrors in the universe, human or otherwise, would never be able to find them. But no, they decided to do the right thing and stand their ground. They're trying to fix what's wrong with the galaxy. That asinine piece of crap in a captain's uniform just didn't want to hear it, preferring to live in a fantasy land where 'doing what's right' was synonymous to 'help the megalomaniac supervillain stay in power'. If he wanted to work for the Emperor, fine. But he shouldn't dare try and justify his actions or claim he was doing the right thing in any way. There was no excuse good enough anymore that would let an honorable man to work for the Dominion in good conscience.

It sickened her to the core. Not just the fact that anyone could be so willfully blind, but also that Lilith had finally realized that there was something in the universe more deserving of her hate than the Zerg Swarm. What scared her the most is that she couldn't be sure if this was her own thinking, or the Zerg's point of view slowly worming its way into her skull. She had never pictured herself as a Zerg sympathizer, but it was hard not to. They just weren't the complete monsters that they should have been, and she didn't know what to do with that knowledge. Feel relieved? Go into denial? Not give a damn? Life just…didn't make a lot of sense anymore.

At least, that's what she kept telling herself.

She found Tiberias in what looked like the general's quarters. He was sitting hunched over in a chair, staring at a tiny handgun he was holding in his hands.

"He tried to shoot himself, Lilith." Her friend said, in a tone that sounded…pained. Hurt. Was that even possible for the guy? "The son of a bitch tried to shoot himself…"

It was then that she noticed the general himself, lying unconscious over his desk. Apparently he'd been knocked out when Cain slammed him, along with his desk, into the wall. A small trickle of blood was visible on the side of his face. He had been able to pull the trigger, but seemed to have missed. All he would need were some stitches and a little bed rest for the inevitable concussion. Nothing life-threatening.

Lilith quickly scrounged through the general's files and found his encryption key. Not that they really needed it. After all, they were only the distraction team. That said, if the ruse was supposed to work, the Zerg had to leave with something other than Raynor.

She turned to her companion and found him in the sorriest state she could have imagined. Despair seemed to bleed out of every pore in his body. His face couldn't properly telegraph emotion anymore, but his eyes spoke volumes. Lilith wasn't a telepath, but she swore that she could feel his pain, somehow, and it felt like she just stuck her hand in a blender. It didn't make any sense. This was Tiberias freakin' Cain. A cheap action flick hero made flesh. The kind that would crack wise in the middle of a firefight and walk through a field of corpses as casually as he would down the street. The kind who wouldn't bat an eyelash if a giant mech shaped like Santa Claus came down from the heavens and offered him a bouquet of roses. The kind who would calmly walk away from a massive explosion while putting on a pair of cheesy sunglasses. Lilith always thought that he just didn't have any emotions other than grim determination and gallows humor. To see him breaking down like this…

"Hey, it's okay." She said, sitting down in front of him. Lilith hated it when people were being miserable, especially when she couldn't do anything about it. Seeing it happening to the only one in the Swarm she'd call a friend was downright heartbreaking. "We've got what we needed. Let's go."

Cain just stared in front of him. "He tried to…"

"I know. And he didn't. You saved him." While she had no idea why anyone would give a damn about a blood-crazed Dominion general, she knew from the briefing that the two were close at some point. Brothers in all but blood. But that was years ago. She could never have guessed that it would hit him this hard.

"He was a good man, once." He paused, grasping the weapon in his hands so tight that Lilith could almost see the indentations made by his claws. "I…I did this to him. I'm the reason he…"

"Shut up. Just, shut up. People only change if they let themselves be changed. Whatever made him into the psychotic cousin of General William Tecumseh Sherman isn't _your_ fault, and I'll be damned if you start beating yourself up over things you didn't do." As much as Lilith wanted to believe otherwise, she didn't get the impression that she was getting through to him. "Dammit, aren't you supposed to be giving _me_ pep-talks around here?"

"If only things were that simple…"

Lilith sighed. She wasn't a psychologist. Hell, she barely understood why he was so upset about this. General Morrigan had been trying to kill him for years. If someone did this to her, she'd be happy to watch them die in a fire. Why, she'd throw a party and invite the whole sector. Then again, she wasn't Cain, nor had she known him long enough to understand what he's going through. She needed help. But not here, and not now. "Fine. How about we stop moping until we get off this ship, okay? We still have a job to do."

Tiberias didn't answer. He simply dropped the pistol, grabbed his own weapon, and headed for the access shaft without another word.

**Brig, White Star, Deep Space**

The last few days (or was it weeks?) had been difficult Harvey and the rest of the Raiders. Stuck in a Dominion prison (again) and cut off from their leader (again), the crew had done their best trying to make the most out of the situation. Most of that involved playing cards with Kat next to him and keeping their mouths shut when the Dominion people were watching. Boring, after a while, but necessary. None of the crew would have been able to say much anyway, but people tend to know more than they realize and he didn't want to help the Dominion if he could avoid it.

With Raynor being held separately, it fell onto his lieutenant to keep morale high until they could be rescued. Assuming they would be, of course. Harvey knew they were being held on a ship and that it could be anywhere by now. Apparently the Dominion has learned from their escape from Char: keeping high-value prisoners in the same place for a long time is a bad idea, especially when there's an army of insectiod mutants looking out for them. Maintaining morale wasn't as difficult as it seemed, however. For reasons Harvey could only guess at, their Dominion jailors didn't seem interested in trying to break them, not even out of spite. Sure, some of the personnel were being rude to them, but it never progressed beyond name-calling and generally being unpleasant. No torture, no starvation, and none of the worse things that tended to happen to the unlucky bastards who end up as Dominion prisoners. Of course, torturing them would have been pointless: only Raynor himself would probably know anything useful and for every man crippled or killed in the interrogation chamber, ten could easily be recruited the next time the Raiders visited a populated world. Then again, the Dominion isn't known for their strict recruitment code. There would inevitably be at least one sick bastard who'd beat him to a pulp just for the heck of it. The fact that no one had (yet) was surprising. Maybe the Dominion military had finally developed a sense of honor. Or maybe they were afraid that Raynor would fly into a rage and murder every living thing on the ship with his bare hands. Or they were afraid that his girlfriend would take revenge on his behalf…

The Zerg were another issue that had bothered the Raiders lately. So they're the bad guys…except they're not…up until the point that they are. To a veteran of the Brood War, the Raiders' recent dealings with the creatures gave him an odd sense of déjà vu. Yes, the Zerg needed their help, and they needed that of the Zerg, but it seemed like only a matter of time until the Swarm turned against them again. Yes, the woman in charge seemed to be a very different person, now, but that could all be an act. One of Harvey's greatest fears is that the Queen of Blades (who was dead…except she wasn't…up until the point that she sort off was) wouldn't just jump into a black hole when the bad guys were dealt with. He really hoped Raynor knew what he was doing. Then again, the man turned out to be right on the money with poor Stanley. In that case, however, his judgment wasn't clouded by heartache. The commander's relationship with Sarah Kerrigan was worst kept secret on the Hyperion. Anyone who served with the man for a long time would have realized that she was the real reason this whole revolution got started in the first place. While Raynor certainly wanted the people of the Sector to be free, Kerrigan's capture and subsequent transformation in the Queen of Blades was the spark that set off the bonfire. Now, normally Harvey wouldn't have any trouble being led by someone with a strong, personal motivator, but this was different. The stakes were too high to let anything cloud your judgment, let alone something as powerful as love.

Then, one day, the ship suddenly shook. Bulkheads began to creak and deform, as if the vessel was slowly being crushed by the hand of God. He could hear gunfire and screaming coming from down the hall, drawing closer every minute. If he listened really closely, he could even hear the inhuman screeches of what could only be their rescuers: the freakin' Zerg. Again. Lovely. Now he would be expected to be grateful to the giant flesh-eating bugs. What an interesting universe he lived in.

Finally, the door of the prison was ripped out of its frame and Kerrigan, Queen of freakin' Blades, stepped through, dispatching the guards and locking one really stupid technician in the cell next to him. Good riddance, Harvey thought. That particular bastard had the gall to say that Kat had an alien fetish. That's like saying that someone has a crooked nose: sure, it might be true, but it's impolite to say it out loud. At any rate, Harvey was about to give the Zerg leader a big thank-you when he realized that he was still stuck in his damn cell and that she'd moved on, probably to wherever Raynor's being held.

"Guess being the Zerg queen's boyfriend has its perks…" Kat deadpanned.

"You know, for some reason I'm okay with staying here for a while longer." Harvey replied. As he finished, Zerglings began to flood into the room and started chewing on the locks. He wasn't sure whether he should get really worried or try to help them.

Kat, naturally, had made up her mind already. "No, don't chew on it like that, you stupid dog! Find the keys. The keys! You're gonna break all your teeth like that."

"It's an electronic lock, controlled from a panel somewhere else. I don't think there even is a key."

"Well, it's not like the little guys can read, now is it?"

"Fair enough."

Suddenly, the doors to each cell opened and the Zerg backed off, letting another lady in a ghost uniform, that seemed familiar somehow, pass by. Harvey didn't really put much thought into her, though. Not when he was face to face with a Zergling. Perhaps it was muscle memory or simple paranoia, but he just wasn't comfortable with having a Zerg this close to him, even if they were supposed to be on the same side.

Raynor showed up, followed by Kerrigan and the other ghost. For the first time since their capture, the Raiders felt relieved. Relieved enough to temporarily forget that they were still on a Dominion warship, surrounded by Zerg. "Alright, boys and girls, vacation's over. The Zerg have been kind enough to offer us a ride home, and I, for one, have had enough of this crate to last a lifetime."

The crew nodded in approval, except for Kat, who put two and two together and realized that they wouldn't be flying first class. "Sir, are they taking us on one of their own 'ships'?"

Raynor, understanding that some people might have a problem with that, replied. "Beggars can't be choosers, Kat. If you ever wanted to know what a leviathan looks like from the inside, today's your lucky day."

"Your equipment is being held in a storage hold a deck below us." The ghost said, trying to appear reassuring. "The Zerg have taken most of the ship already, so you should be safe." Good. There isn't a pile of money in the universe big enough to convince Harvey to willingly enter a Zerg hive, or a Zerg ship, without a suit of power armor.

"You heard the lady." Raynor grumbled, retaking command a little more quickly than what would be considered polite in such a situation. "Grab your gear. We're leaving."

Throughout the whole conversation, Kerrigan silently stood behind Raynor, her face unreadable. It was difficult to know what she was thinking. Probably nothing too pleasant. Might as well: Harvey didn't think too highly of her either, whatever the commander said. Still, beggars can't be choosers. And he'd get to see the inside of a leviathan. Another story to bore his future grandchildren with.

Assuming he'll live long enough to have them.


	87. Chapter 87

_A/N Hurray, the world didn't end last Friday! The Mayans were wrong!_

_And a good thing too. I spent last week working on my bloody exams. If they were right, I'd have spent my last few days studying for a test and I wouldn't even have known if I passed or not. That would have been downright cruel._

_That said, I can't be the only one who isn't at least a little disappointed that nothing happened. Like, at all._

**Main Docking Bay, Behemoth, Deep Space**

With a gentle nudge from the muscles that functioned as make-shift docking clamps, the White Star was pushed out of the behemoth's mouth and back into the void. For having been chewed on by a giant monster, it was still in a surprisingly good condition, Kerrigan thought. That is to say, it is still space-worthy. It probably wouldn't be going anywhere on its own power anytime soon, but at least the crew wouldn't suffocate for a few days. That said, Izsha had been kind enough to relay their distress signal to the Dominion. Someone would come looking for them soon enough. They wouldn't find the Zerg, though. As soon as the Terran vessel cleared the behemoth's mouth, Kerrigan could feel the ship lurch into warp.

With Raynor safe once again, the Zerg queen was somewhat at a loss as to what to do next. Like a lovesick teenager, she'd been so preoccupied with retrieving her boyfriend that she hadn't thought about what to do when they succeeded. With most of the known surviving broods under her command, she didn't really know where to go from here. The Dominion was being dealt with, and Jim would have her skinned if she intervened. It was rather aggravating, to be stuck on the sidelines in a situation like this, but she knew full well that there wasn't much she could do without making things worse. Her resources weren't exactly suited to winning over the masses. All she had was a massive army and you can't apply a military solution to a problem that can't be solved through strength of arms.

So what could she do? Sit on her hands and wait for the Fallen One to make his move, probably. Unless the Raiders had some errant for her to run. Not exactly work befitting a queen, but still.

Speaking of Raiders; Jim finally managed to find her. "Big ship, darlin'. I'd almost think you're trying to out-do me."

"You know me. I only settle for the best." Kerrigan smiled, and noticed that Raynor wasn't wearing his armor. "You've taken off your suit…"

"And regretting it. This stink is never going to come out of my clothes."

"It's not that bad, once you get used to it. Sure beats the smell of oil and grease that oozes from your ship, if you ask me."

"Somehow, though, I don't think 'Eau the Zerg' is going to catch on… Look, Sarah, I trust you. I know I'm safe here and I don't need to armor myself against you or your…let's call them subordinates." He was lying, though. Kerrigan didn't need to be a telepath that to see that everything about this place made him uncomfortable. Not that surprising, given that they were standing in what essentially was a giant Zerg hive. The only reason Raynor had ever set foot in one of those before was to blow them up. Seeing the woman he loved walk around here like it was home must be completely perplexing. She could tell that he was constantly checking his own sanity, wondering if he had finally gone mad somewhere along the way.

"I appreciate the gesture, I really do, but you're not telling me the truth. How are you really feeling?"

"Alright, now that I know the Hyperion okay. Your adjutant was very helpful. But, yes, this place is giving us the creeps. My men down in that room you cleaned out for us, they're getting a bit antsy too. They're still fighting the urge to grab some flamethrowers and torch the place." Ever the commander. He'd always put his men's safety before his own. Big, stupid man.

"God, is it even possible for you to be selfish for one second? How are _you_ doing?"

Raynor calmly closed the distance and embraced her. "Better with you in my arms. I've missed you, Sarah. A prison cell is a very lonely place. Still, I don't think I'll be able to relax here. Can't shake the feeling that someone is watching us…"

"We _are_ being watched. Maybe directly, maybe by the millions of voices that live inside my head now." She could feel Raynor grimace. Perhaps she'd been a little to callous about her condition. "I'm used to it, Jim, I'm military. Privacy is an alien concept to me anyway."

"Not like this. You keep worrying about me, but what about you? I've barely spoken to you since Char, and what we have talked about, quite frankly, scares me."

"Humans are adaptive and I've never had a normal life. I'll be fine. You won't have to make good on your promise anytime soon." Kerrigan reassured him, but even Raynor knew that she was dodging the question. "Especially now that you're not at the mercy of some crazy psycho general."

"Okay, to his credit, that Morrigan person isn't completely insane. Ruthless, yes. Sociopath, probably. But he's never tried to torture me or been a bastard for the sake of being a bastard. Then again, I started talking pretty soon…"

"About what?" Kerrigan asked, worried that he might have spilled something classified.

"Oh, nothing too sensitive, darlin'. Told him about the hybrid mess that we've found ourselves in. Figured that the more people know about it, the better. Maybe one of them will wise up enough to do something about it, and this guy seemed to buy it."

"Is he going to do anything?"

"Not sure. He didn't tell me all that much in return. Not that unexpected, but still a little rude if you ask me. Did the general survive the break-out?"

"He did. Tai said he tried to kill himself, though." Kerrigan suddenly remembered the rather strange tone in her underling's report. Deathly cold, like some part of him died on that ship. Very unlike him. "The guy seems to be quite broken up about it. I should probably check on him later."

"A Zerg being broken up about a human trying to kill himself?" Raynor asked skeptically. "You're kidding right?"

"We're people too, Jim. For the most part, anyway. Apparently the two were very close once. What do you think would have happened to me if you tried something like that?"

Jim began to realize the full gravity of what he just said. "Guess there's a reason I'm still alive after all these years. Didn't mean to imply that you don't have feelings." He also realized that Kerrigan must have been, in some part, aware of her situation before. Trapped inside her own mind, impotently watching as the world around her went to hell. He quickly banished the thought. He didn't want to think about the agony she must have been in, and he sure as hell didn't want to hurt the woman he loved by reminding her of it. "So, I guess it's a good thing Morrigan's still alive. We could use him when the shit hits the fan."

"Assuming he doesn't try to kill me…"

"That ain't gonna happen. I love you, and whatever comes next, we'll face it together, okay."

"I'd like that." While it was doubtful that Raynor could protect her when her time would inevitably come, she'd gladly pretend for a little while longer.

**Cargo Hold, Behemoth, Deep Space**

Lilith was angry. She was angry at the universe, angry at that damned general, angry at her stupid friend, but most of all, angry at herself. It was the kind of anger she felt when she saw Dominion soldiers round up miners to work as slave labor, or when they arrested innocent people for no apparent reason. The kind of anger that she felt when she saw something bad happen, but was powerless to stop it. It was the same thing that drove her to join the militia. This time, however, the source of her anger wasn't something that could be solved with a gun.

There was something horribly wrong with Cain. Coming back from the White Star, it was like some part of him died. He'd barely talked, and even when he had, it was only to give the boss a report on their part of the mission. No jokes, no 'humans suck' lecture, hell, he didn't even flinch when Raynor and a whole damn army of humans showed up and decided to camp inside the ship. He just nodded and went back to cleaning his damn gun. No matter how hard Lilith tried, she couldn't get him to talk to her about it. She wasn't going to let that stop her, though. Call it a bad case of 'chronic hero syndrome', as her mother had called her desire to help people, but she wasn't about to let her friend sink into isolation like that. Unfortunately, she wasn't a psychologist. In fact, now that she realized this, the Zerg Swarm didn't have _any_ psychologists. Which, incidentally, explained much.

What the Zerg did have, were scientists and thinkers, which would have to do. Only one of them (as far as she knew, anyway) had the right expertise, however. This put her in the uncomfortable position of being forced to ask for the help of the one being she hated more than anything in the universe. "Sa'ti, I need your help."

The broodmother, still badly injured from her fight on Mar Sara, looked up with a surprised look on her face. Lilith's hatred for her was irrational, and they both knew it, but it didn't make it any less real. She had always blamed the massive Zerg for bringing her into the Swarm, and all the problems she's had since, while quietly forgetting the fact that any other broodmother would probably have killed her in a failed infestation attempt. "You require aid. From _me_?"

"It's not for my sake, it's for a friend. Is that really that surprising?"

Sa'ti sneered. "Defiant as always. I am more surprised that our current ruler has allowed you to remain as you are. The Queen of Blades would have killed you or robbed you of your free will when your insolence would prove too much for her to tolerate…"

"Well, the Queen of Blades is dead. I'm not, and our current boss doesn't seem to mind me that much."

"So it would seem. Intriguing. Apparently, my sisters did not exaggerate…"

Immediately, Lilith cut her off. "But enough about the boss. Tai's in trouble, and you're going to help him." She continued, explaining in as much detail as she could what she thought was wrong. "…and now, he won't talk to anyone. He doesn't send us away, but he just looks at you, without saying a word. I've never had to pry conversation out of him before. Now, what's wrong, and how do we fix it?"

The broodmother sighed, and said: "Lilith, you are wasting your time. There is nothing I can do."

"That's it? You're telling me to give up on him?"

"In essence, yes."

The girl could feel her patience stretch to the limit. Sa'ti better have a good answer, she thought, or she might just strangle the damn thing. "Why?"

The broodmother took a deep breath. Lilith knew she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear. "Have you ever wondered why there are so few of your kind amongst us?"

"Something about 'genetic weakness'?" She really hated that term. It just sounded so arrogant. As if someone would always be inferior regardless of their actions, simply because they had the misfortune of being born with 'weak' genes.

"That would be the explanation Abathur would give. He only sees the world in terms of genes and nucleotides. I believe the human saying was: 'when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail'? I do not know if that is the truth, but I do know that the human mind is too complex for this problem to have a simple genetic solution."

"So what is the damn problem, and why can't I fix it?"

"The problem is that humans are not designed to be obedient slaves. That without some measure of self-determination, they will simply self-destruct. If they experience enough pain at the same time, or at the right time, they simply…fall apart. A being that is truly sentient, but has no free will, cannot remain indefinitely. If there is no joy in their existence and no hope for improvement, at some point, they lose the will to live. That is why I have given you far more freedom than most in your place. My hope is that you would be spared such a fate and eventually become a more useful servant to the Swarm."

"Well, thanks…I guess. That doesn't help Tai, though."

The broodmother's mandibles twitched as the creature tried to find the best way of stating something that would almost certainly result in her getting yelled at. A lot. "I do not know him personally, but I believe it is simply his time."

"His _time_!" Lilith said, furiously. "I'm supposed to just leave him to die because he's past his _expiration date_?! He's more than just a slab of meat, you bitch!"

"Has it ever occurred to you that he might be aware of his own condition on some level? That he is pushing others away so that he can allow himself to die in peace, without harming others in the process? There is nothing you can do for him, Lilith. Leave him be."

"Like hell, I am! What if you're wrong?!"

"My knowledge of the Terran mind is incomplete and I will be the first to admit it, but that does not make me wrong. I have seen dozens of infested humans turn on their own weapon after slaying their former comrades, often while begging for forgiveness with their dying breaths. Trust me, there is only so much death a human can be witness to before the screams of the damned become too much to bear and they die as well."

"Post-traumatic stress disorder is perfectly curable…"

"If only it were that simple…" Sa'ti sighed yet again. "I could continue, but I know you will not listen. I could try and stop you, but I cannot do so without causing you harm. Therefore, allow me to give you a word of advice, for what little good it will do: You will almost certainly fail and when you do, the pain to the both of you will be far greater than what you would have experienced if you simply accepted the inevitable. All things come to an end, Lilith. Your friend is no different."

"We'll see about that." She wasn't going to give up. Not on him. Not like this. There were others who could help her. Maybe the boss…

_A/N Have you ever noticed how, in-game, infested Terrans shoot themselves when they time-out?_


	88. Chapter 88

**Behemoth, Deep Space**

"…so Valerian is trying to unite as many dissidents as he can. Almost easy, these days. One way or another, there's going to be a change in leadership in the Dominion very soon."

Raynor grumbled something unintelligible. "Doesn't mean I have to like him, Sarah."

Kerrigan lowered her head in disappointment. Then again, she must have known by now that her boyfriend had a habit of being pig-headed. "Yes, you're a stubborn ass. But I think you're also a little angry that Prince Charming stole your revolution."

Raynor snorted in response. "Hey, he can have it. I already got what I wanted." He grabbed her a little closer. "No, I'm just worried that if I let Junior take charge, I'll be spending the next four years getting rid of him after he got rid of the current establishment. The kid already betrayed me once…"

"…and I won't let him do it again." Kerrigan assured him. "Besides, there are extenuating circumstances."

"Maybe. I trust you, but I still can't put much faith in him. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, after all."

The mere mention of Arcturus caused Kerrigan to freeze up and ball her fists. Raynor swore he could even see a flash of yellow in her eyes. An instant later, however, the building rage vanished as quickly as it came, only to be replaced by…something else. In a frighteningly chilling tone, she said: "Then you can tell him that if he gets any ideas, whatever I'll do to his father, he'll suffer in triplicate. Even so, he respects you enough to let you be his moral compass and one glare from Warfield will turn his spine into jello."

"I suppose we don't have much of a choice. I've never really put much thought into what comes after. Always figured Matt would clean up the mess when the dust settled. But, I guess that isn't going to work anymore…"

Kerrigan must have sensed his fragile emotional state. Her tone became warmer and less…inhuman almost immediately. "You always did your best, Jim. Always. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Everything that's happened, to the Raiders, to humanity, to me…It's not your fault."

He didn't really believe her, of course. "Doesn't mean that people aren't going to make me fix everything again…"

"Occupational hazards…"

"I guess."

The two enjoyed each other's company for a few minutes, until someone had the nerve to interrupt them.

"Ahem…" A voice behind them spoke. It was a…infested human…in a coat? "Uh…hi, sorry for interrupting, but I kind of need to borrow my boss for a few minutes." She seemed almost embarrassed.

Raynor couldn't hide his amusement. "So, you're a boss now, Sarah?"

"Bite me. It's better than 'my queen'." She immediately shot him a glare that warned him not to ask any further before turning to the Zerg creature that interrupted their little moment. "What's it now, Lilith?"

"Umm, right. It's about Tai. There's something wrong with him and…well…I was hoping you could help. I don't know what to do, so…"

Kerrigan sighed. "Guess he's doing worse than I'd thought. Sorry, Jim. Duty calls."

"I know. Occupational hazards. Anything I can do?"

"No. I don't think he likes you very much. This is a Zerg thing. I'll handle it." With that, she left the commander to his thoughts.

"Right, a Zerg thing…" He muttered to himself.

What did that even mean, a 'Zerg thing'? Raynor had plenty of experience dealing with people and their problems. The Raiders accepted recruits from all walks of life and from every colony in the sector. He even had experience dealing with aliens thanks to his dealings with the Protoss. Why wouldn't he be able to help? What was it that would allow Sarah to fix the problem, but not him? It's not like she's any more of a people person than he was…

Then it hit him: Zerg aren't human. It might seem like the most obvious thing in the universe, but it wasn't. Raynor could get Protoss. They were weird, with their superior intelligence and insanely advanced technology, but at least a human could empathize with them with a reasonable amount of success. They had hopes, dreams, and personal flaws, just like Terrans did. Zerg, however, were another thing altogether. They were more than just weird or different. They were truly, utterly alien, in ways the Protoss aren't. Concepts like 'society', 'self', and 'morality' didn't mean the same things to a Zerg as what they did to a human. The dramas that plague a Zerg society would probably make as much sense to him as Terran politics would make to a Bengalaas cat. Which, he just realized to his horror, left the question: would he still be able to understand his own girlfriend?

Now that he thought about it, he realized that he never did fully understand her. He loved her, with all his heart, and knew that on some level Sarah would always love him back, but he never truly understood her. Being a telepath, she had always been an alien amongst her own people. You can't have a power like hers and still see the world in the same light as everyone else does. Then the Zerg took her and did things to her mind and body that Raynor couldn't even begin to wrap his head around. Then the artifact happened, followed by a series of events that changed her even more, and yet didn't.

Kerrigan was still Kerrigan, or at least some part of her was. He could still see pieces of the woman he fell in love with, but there was something else there that he didn't recognized. Something that made her seem…off. As if she was actually someone else doing a frighteningly good impersonation of Sarah. It wasn't, of course. He never once doubted her sincerity. Ever since he looked into those beautiful green eyes of hers on Char, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was still in there, somehow.

However, this alien part of her was keeping him up at night. He knew it was affecting her: Sarah had even admitted that herself. The question of how big that influence actually was remained unanswered. The fact that Raynor couldn't be sure of what she'd do today, let alone what would happen in the future, was terrifying. What if she ever lost the battle for her own mind? What if he died in battle against the Fallen One and his armies? What would she do after the war, even if everyone somehow survived?

Just who is she: Kerrigan, or the Queen of Blades?

Suddenly, a powerful voice ran in his head. "If it were that simple, Commander Raynor, would you still be asking yourself that question?" He turned around and found himself staring at a colossal Zerg creature that somehow managed to sneak up on him. "Before you ask, I am Sa'ti, broodmother of the Swarm, and since your emotional issues affect our queen, your mind _is_ my concern."

"I don't take kindly to people snooping around in my mind, pal, even if you think it is your 'concern'." It was a public secret that Raynor, like just about every other Terran, didn't like the idea that anyone could become privy of their private thoughts. Kerrigan was alright, as were some of the Protoss he trusted, but not random passersby. Especially if they were Zerg.

"I did not 'snoop'. I merely listened to your unceasing wailing. One would think that someone who has had so many dealings with telepaths would be a little more adept at hiding their thoughts…" In other words, 'shut your trap if you don't want people to hear'. Easier said than done.

"Great, another damn clown. Never thought Sarah would end up running an insane asylum…"

"If our queen did command such a facility, I suspect you will feel very much at home." The creature snarled back. "However, you have yet to answer my question. If she was either the Queen of Blades, or the human she once was, would there be any room for doubt?"

"Guess not." As much as he wanted the damn thing to just go away and poke someone else for a while, it did make a lot of sense. In spite of the fact that she sounded like a crappy rendition of a play by Shakespeare, like, for some reason, every other alien Raynor seemed to meet these days.

"I have no intention of merely being a nuisance." She (was it a she?) continued, having apparently read his mind…again. "There are other affairs that would require my attention. I would not waste my time conversing with you unless I believe it to be important."

"Well, I'm honored. So why the hell do you care about me, anyway?"

"I do not. Your life means little in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, our mutual interest will be a key player in the events to come and cares about you greatly. Therefore, our paths cross and we are forced to deal with each other."

"Unfortunately." Raynor muttered.

"Indeed. Recent events, many of which are _your _doing, if I may add, have changed her. While I will admit that the Queen of Blades was far from perfect, at the very least she was a known element. Something the Swarm desperately needed, given the uncertain future ahead of us. Our current leader, however…Even the wisest of my sisters do not know what to make of her. She is one of us, of that we are certain, but beyond that…"

"She's human, Sa'ti. Get over it."

"She _was_ human, and neither of us can afford to ignore this fact." The broodmother immediately corrected. "Which brings me to the heart of the matter. She is not trying to be a human, she is trying to be the woman she was before her encounters with the Swarm. She is trying to relive what, in her view, were the best days of her life."

"And how exactly is that a bad thing? She's been hurt and she's trying to fix herself. It's what we Terrans do."

"Because she will never succeed. People change, human or otherwise. We learn, grow, and evolve every day of our lives. You know this process cannot be reversed. You also know that she will try anyway, mostly for your sake, and blame herself when she inevitably fails to live up to her own, unreachable expectations. The more often she fails, the harder she will try and the more painful her next failure will be. Tell me, Commander, is it common amongst humans to allow their mates to torment themselves like this?"

"You're being a bit melodramatic, aren't you?"

"Perhaps, but it does not change the facts."

Part of him knew that it was the truth. It was painfully obvious that Kerrigan was putting up an act, trying desperately to bury her anger because she knows she can barely control it. She needed help, and she didn't need the kind that the Zerg could give her. "I'm not giving up on her." Raynor said, sternly.

"And I will not ask you to. I know enough about the human mind to know that you cannot bring yourself to watch her turn into something you despise. In her current state, being abandoned by you might actually damage her more than the alternative would. Still, whether you try to help her find herself or allow her to discard her humanity altogether, she will be hurt in the long run. It seems you have only a choice of evils…"

Great. Just great. A giant, freaking bug monster comes along to give you relationship advice, only to tell you to your face that you're screwed no matter what you do. "So what the hell are you telling me this for, anyway. If I can't do right…"

"I did not say that. I merely said that the only options my sisters and I could think off are undesirable for all of us. I tell you this, now, because humans seem to be defined by their inability to accept fate. Lilith, for example."

"The girl Sarah went with?"

"Indeed. She is desperate to save her friend from a condition that will, in all likelihood, be his end. I tried to warn her, to soften the blow, but she will try to help him anyway. I know that the odds are against her and that she will, in all likelihood, break her own heart in the process, yet part of me is hoping that she will succeed. That she will come to a solution that no non-human would ever think off and defy the universe itself. A skill you humans have turned into an art."

Then, the penny dropped. The Zerg was, in a roundabout way, outlining the problem and asking for his help. A problem he had trouble grasping himself. Perhaps this particular Zerg was a lot smarter than he thought… "So now you're hoping that I can use my magic human powers to help Sarah, because you can't figure it out yourselves."

The broodmother lowered its head, almost as if it was ashamed. "As of this moment, the greatest enemy of the queen is the queen herself, whether she realizes this or not. While it pains me to admit it, she…we need your help. Even if you cannot prevent her from falling apart, you may at least be able to soften the blow."

"Never thought a Zerg would ever be asking for _my_ help."

"We all have to make sacrifices, Commander. The stakes are too high not to."

"That they are…"

It has been said that outlining the problem was the first step on the road to success. Unfortunately, Raynor didn't have a clue how to proceed from here. One thing he knew for certain, though: If even the Zerg are saying that Sarah needs help, she obviously needed him more than he realized at first. The next few weeks would be very interesting.


	89. Chapter 89

**Behemoth, Deep Space**

Kerrigan found her underling sitting in his usual hide-out, polishing his weapon even more obsessively than usual. From the outside, it didn't seem like there was something wrong, but the queen knew better. The repetitive, spiritless motions, the dead eyes, the completely empty look on his face… It wasn't difficult to spot the difference between someone doing menial busywork and someone desperately trying to keep his brain occupied, if you knew what to look for. Lilith stayed in the doorway, not wanting to come between his boss and a man who seemed two steps from a nervous breakdown.

"My lady." Cain said, blankly, while gently rubbing the firing mechanism.

"You know, if you keep treating your weapon like that, it's going to file a restraining order against you." Kerrigan didn't get a response. Not even a smile. "What's wrong?"

"There's nothing wrong. I'm just doing my job."

Kerrigan quietly scanned his mind and found it…almost empty. Cold, like sticking her hand in a bucket full of ice. There _was_ something wrong. "Don't feed me that bullshit! I know you better than that. What's wrong?"

"I'm fine, I just…"

Immediately, she grabbed him by the mandible and pulled his head down to eye level. "Stop lying to me. I'm a telepath and I'm your queen. It doesn't work. Now, I'm ordering you to tell me what the hell is wrong!" Cain just looked at her, as if he was expecting, no, waiting for her wrath to come down on him. "Do I have to kill you before I can squeeze an answer out of you?"

"I don't know. Shouldn't you?" The answer was delivered so calmly, it actually began to scare her.

"Should I? Hell, I don't know. All I know is that you went up on that ship your usual asinine self and came back doing the dead-man-walking routine. Now, it's got something to do with that damn general, doesn't it? What happened? What did he do?"

Tai stayed silent, but Kerrigan could feel what was happening inside his mind. The mere mention of the general opened a floodgate of emotions. Rage. Agony. Self-loathing. Guilt. A dozen other things she couldn't make out. It actually hurt to look at. As if the bucket of ice her hand was in turned out to be a blender and someone just turned it on. "He…he shot himself…he shot himself because of…"

"Stop." She interrupted, knowing from her own experience where this was going. "Whatever he did, it's not on you. We're all responsible for our own actions, not those of…"

"Oh, spare me the feel-good bullshit, Kerrigan!" He used her name. He had _never_ used her name, let alone yelled it. "Jack was a good man! A better man! He could have been the next Jim Raynor. He should have spent his life putting good things into the world, not taking the bad things out of it with a gun. A protector, not a marauding butcher. And _I killed him_. I killed him when I didn't have the decency to die like the rest of my family did!" Throughout his ranting, he never broke eye contact. Not once. Kerrigan could feel the rage in his eyes burning straight through her like a lance. It terrified her. He had never acted like this before. There was no telling what would happen if she couldn't calm him down.

"That's not your fault! Trust me, I know it feels like that, but if you keep blaming yourself, you'll go crazy inside an hour. If there's anyone to blame, it's probably…"

"YOU!" With a roar, he picked her up from the floor and slammed her body in to the wall. Kerrigan was about to defend herself when she could feel Cain's hold loosen. "You, and Abathur, and Za'gara, and everyone else who helped do this to me! But you know what's the real kicker? I can't kill you for this. I can't even kill myself. It. Won't. Let. Me. It won't let me snap your neck. It won't let me _not_ dodge a bullet. It won't let me stop fighting. Every wound I get just regenerates. Every man I meet dies before he can kill me. Every mission I go on, I know I'll make it out because I'm just too damn lucky not to. And now…Now _you_ come along, trying to atone, telling us to fight for something I WILL NEVER GET BACK!" Tai finally let her go, allowing her to regain her footing. "How am I supposed to live like this? Why can't you let me die in peace?"

Kerrigan was dumbstruck. For a while, she didn't know what to say. What was there to say? What do you say to someone who actually wants to die? Unless… "You don't really want to die. If you really did, you would have found a way already. Not rescuing me, for starters."

"And look what that's gotten me? Killing people is fine if you can convince yourself they aren't worth saving. Being able to hate humanity, hate what I've lost, is the only thing that makes this damned mockery of a life bearable to me. Lo and behold, you introduce me to those goddamn knights in shining armor, with their goddamn ideals and nobility, and my whole reality falls apart. Then, in order to save said knights in shining armor, I have to kill the one person in the whole damn sector whom I cannot bring myself to hate. So, why shouldn't you kill me? I have no business being alive. I have no business being sane. I _certainly_ don't have any business being human!" Hearing this from him hurt. Kerrigan had never even considered what her actions were doing to him. Yes, the logic was twisted, yes, she couldn't have done right either way, but that didn't mean that this wasn't a problem of her making. She was at least partially to blame for his misery.

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't. I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that being a good man isn't something that only happens to humans. No one told you to have my back all the time. No one told you to help Lilith work out her problems. That's above and beyond the call of duty. You did that because you're a better man than you give yourself credit for, and a good friend. Probably better than I deserve." By now, Kerrigan had stopped reading his mind altogether. She couldn't make sense out of the torrent of emotions anymore. All she could do now was talk to him, and hope for the best. "Don't talk. Not another word. For what it's worth, I think you're one of the few good people left in the world, and I'm not going to let you die because you're too stupid to see that."

Having said all she could, the queen turned around and left. What else could have been said? She wasn't a shrink, she was an assassin. She knew how to take lives, not how to put them back together again. That said, leaving him alone right now might not be a good idea…

…though judging from the anxious look on Lilith's face, he wouldn't be alone for long.

With her boss gone, Lilith walked over to her friend and said: "I'm sorry you had to live through all that. I'm going to hug you now. Please don't throw me into a wall."

"Lilith…" He wanted to tell her that he needed to be alone for a while, but the girl already grabbed him.

"Shut up. Boss is right about you, you know, and you're not the only one who's trying to figure out what being human means."

With nothing left to say, he returned the embrace and, for the first time in years, cried the way only a human could.

**Medical Bay, White Star, Deep Space**

Captain Williams sat in the med bay, waiting for his superior to wake up. For whatever good it would do. He needed help, but it was doubtful that even the general would be able to make sense of what the Zerg just pulled off.

Their objective was obvious, in hindsight: Jim Raynor and his men. Not that they had any way of proving that anymore. Somehow, the Zerg managed to corrupt most of the ship's logs and security feeds. As far as anyone outside the ship could tell, the Raiders were never on board the ship to begin with. All things considered, the Swarm had unintentionally done them a favor: if the emperor had found out that they had Raynor in custody and allowed him to escape, he and his entire crew would probably be hanged.

Still, it didn't explain what the Zerg wanted in the first place. Why Raynor? Why bother talking? Why let the ship go after capturing it? He could think of several reasons, but none of them made any sense unless the Zerg had somehow decided to throw their old philosophy out of the airlock and embrace a more peaceful one. With all the weird going on lately, though, Zerg turning into a force of good wouldn't be the strangest thing that'd happen to him.

So for once, Williams was actually hoping that the general had something useful to say about this. Wrapping his brain around what had happened would probably drive him mad. Not that he'd expected much from Morrigan anyway: the man did try to kill himself, though he couldn't really be blamed for doing so. The man was utterly convinced that defeat at the hands of the Zerg would mean either death or infestation, so blowing your own brains out was actually the most sensible thing to do, from a certain point of view. Still, anyone willing to kill themselves so easily couldn't entirely be trusted.

Finally, the general began to wake up. Strangely enough, his wounds were rather superficial: a concussion and a flesh wound where the bullet grazed him. While the captain didn't have all the details, he couldn't help but think that for someone trying to kill himself, Morrigan did a terrible job. He was still alive, for starters.

"I'm not dead, am I, Captain?" He said.

"Sorry to disappoint you."

The general frowned. "I see. Where are we?"

"Still on the White Star, or what's left of it anyway. We were able to cobble together a transmitter and hailed a relief ship. They gave us enough parts to get the warp drive back into working condition. The rest, however…we lost a third of the crew, our secondary reactor will need to be replaced, and our structural integrity isn't what it used to be. That said, we're in pretty good shape for a ship that's been chewed on by a giant space whale from hell."

The general grumbled, seemingly annoyed. "I'm more worried about the survivors. What did the Zerg do to us?" It was then that he noticed the restraints holding down his arms. "And why am I strapped to the bed?!"

"Suicide watch. Standard procedure. You did try to kill yourself, remember?"

"I did. Better to die than be captured alive by the Zerg. So, why am I still breathing?"

"You tell me. When they brought you here, the worst thing you had was a concussion…"

Morrigan pondered to himself, until realization struck him. "That son-of-a-bitch saved my life…Captain, did you have the doctors perform a full medical exam on my body?"

"We did, sir. It's clean. Completely clean. We did every test known to man in triplicate and even got a second opinion from the doctor on board the relief ship. You're not infested. No one on this ship is."

The general looked completely dumbstruck. He didn't even think that was possible. "That doesn't make any sense. The Zerg wouldn't let us live without a reason. Why would they just let us go?"

"I was hoping you'd know. At any rate, we'll arrive at the Dylarian shipyards within the hour. The ship needs to be repaired before we can do anything."

"Shit…Williams, you have to stop the ship. We're all compromised in some way, you just can't detect it. If a single Zerg spore is let loose on the largest shipyard in the sector, the damage could be catastrophic."

"We went over every square inch. The Zerg let us go and left nothing behind. Not even the bodies of their own dead. I'm sure of it. Even if I wasn't, the men are tired, demoralized and we're in dire need of supplies and spare parts. We _have_ to make a stop at the shipyards whether we like it or not."

"Damn you, captain, I gave you an order! We could all be infested and we can't let it spread!"

"But if you think you're infested I can't really trust your orders, now can I?" Williams replied with a smirk. It took a few moments before the general realized that he'd just been outmaneuvered. Hard.

"Oh, you magnificent bastard. I'd buy you a beer if it weren't for the fact that you're risking the security of the entire human race for a few spare parts!"

"Noted. Get well, general. I'm sure there'll be a nurse coming by to check on you soon. Try not to kill yourself again."

Leaving the seething general behind, Williams made his way to the bridge. Truth be told, he wasn't particularly happy himself either. He still didn't understand why the Zerg wanted Raynor. To make matters worse, he probably wasted whatever favor he had with Morrigan, which wasn't a sound career move in any situation. Then again, if Raynor had been telling the truth, none of that would soon matter anyway.

The ship shut down its warp engines, and Captain Williams mentally prepared himself to guide his vessel through the forest of dry-docks and platforms that was the Dylarian shipyards.

Instead, he found himself staring at a field of smoldering debris.


	90. Chapter 90

**The Overmind's Corpse, Aiur**

Time was running out. Zeratul could feel it. The betrayal of 'Karass' had made that all the more apparent. If the enemy felt that it could reveal one of its most important agents, then the Fallen One was far more confident than he had believed. The enemy didn't even bother to chase Zeratul's ship for long: after looking back to his sensor logs, he had already lost his pursuers a mere light-year away from the Auriga Tribe's flagship. Then again, why bother? Chasing a Dark Templar was almost impossible, even with the advanced technology that the Protoss possessed. It would have been a waste of resources. Besides, what could he do to stop them? Back on Shakuras, Artanis was as powerless as always in a government that grew more fractured by the day. From what the Prelate had heard, the Hierarch hadn't even dared mention Tassadar's warnings or the Overmind's prophecy, for fear of destroying what little credibility he had earned over the years. Not that anyone could blame him for it. After all, what was he supposed to tell them? That the greatest evil their people had ever known was on their side, somehow? While it was true that the Protoss took matters of prophecy very seriously, particularly those with links to the Xel'Naga, they were wise enough not to take them on their word alone, especially when the source was less than reliable. Since Zeratul's word probably wouldn't carry the weight it once did, the prelate knew that he had no choice but to act on his own.

But what could he do? He was only one man. He could not fight an entire war on his own, or rally enough allies to his banner without help. Not with the current state of the Protoss empire. Not when the tribes seem to care more about imposing their own views on the greater whole, instead of coming to a consensus. Still, he had to do something. As Raynor once put it, he'd be damned if he just sat on his hands and waited for the end. So he would use the only weapon he could: knowledge. If he could discover irrefutable evidence of the Fallen One's presence and intent, or where he would strike first, he would have some advantage over the enemy.

So he returned to the being that started it all. Perhaps there was still some information that could be squeezed out of the Overmind. Perhaps Tassadar's spirit could provide him with an insight that could help him. Perhaps… Zeratul realized that he was grasping at straws. He probably wouldn't have considered returning to this graveyard if he had anything better to go on. And yet, he felt certain that he would succeed. As if something, be that fate or something else, had drawn him here.

Upon arriving, the first thing that struck him was the suffocating stench of death. The second, the eerie silence. Neither of which was there the last time he visited. He remembered a legion of Zerg around their dead master, and having to fight for his life, just to reach the tendrils of the creature's mind. Now, only ruins and corpses remained. A few scattered zerglings, easily dispatched with his warp-blade. The hive structures, stiff and dying from lack of nourishment. While he would never pity the abominations that infested his home, he still couldn't bring himself to celebrate his enemy's mysterious demise. Someone killed these Zerg. Or took them away. But whom and why? Zerg do not simply disappear without a trace.

Zeratul met little resistance as he walked through the ruins of the outpost he used to reach the Overmind the first time. It must have been overrun within hours after he and his allies abandoned it. As regrettable as it was to see such fine examples of Protoss engineering reduced to rubble, he paid it little heed. War was war, and he had long since been desensitized to destruction. There was little chance or purpose in saving it anyway.

As he walked closer to the former overlord of the Swarm, he could feel the echoes of its power in his head, much like he experienced before. It wasn't true thought, but merely the random firing of neurons in some instinctual pattern. This husk was no longer sentient, as Tassadar had burned out its heart and soul, but there were still traces of its consciousness left intact, such as memories, preprogrammed behaviors, and an instinctual anger of a father who saw his children destroyed. The closer he got, the stronger this anger became. Perhaps the source that anger would be the key to discovering what happened here. Zeratul touched the remains of a tendril, and his mind was flooded with images.

Images of a great shadow descending on the planet, swallowing all in their path.

Of its victims being devoured and warped into twisted mockeries of themselves, forced to turn upon their siblings.

Of this shadow covering the entire planet, consuming or destroying every Zerg it came across, before landing one last, spiteful blow against the Overmind itself.

Of the shadow's satisfaction, and its departure towards Terran space, with the legions of corrupted Zerg in tow…

Zeratul recoiled, grasping his head in pain. He realized that he just saw the end of the Zerg Swarm on this world. He should be rejoicing. Without the Zerg infesting the planet, what was to stop the Protoss from reclaiming their homeworld? Yet, he was afraid. Zerg do not simply disappear. Someone took control of them and sent them to war. His first suspect would have been Kerrigan, but that made little sense. Surely the Overmind wouldn't have minded it if its own heir took command of the broods of this world? Still, the stakes were too high for doubt. He needed more information.

Reluctantly, he looked for and found another tendril, hoping that this one led to the more analytical part of the creature's mind and away from the painful and turbulent memories. As he touched it, his mind was filled with calculations and possible scenarios. As if his mind had been plugged into a supercomputer. Hundreds of different futures passed through his consciousness, many of which ended in total annihilation. Eventually, they all boiled down to a single possibility, the one the Overmind would have acted upon, if its mind were still intact. In his head, he could hear the repeating message, spoken in a cold, labored tone:

_Silent has it been within this shallow grave since my Maker took my children to war._

_He seeks to tear down the throne of Men, seething in rot and ready to fall._

_The Firstborn, without home or hope, will drown in their own discord._

_Without them, my daughter will be forced to face this evil alone, and be doomed to failure._

_She will fall, and all that we are, will be no more._

The throne of Men…humanity…the Dominion. Why would the Overmind care for them? Why would they, of all people, have to live? Worse still, why would the Protoss 'drown in their own discord'? Artanis would never let it get that far…

Another prophecy. Even in death, the Overmind remains an enigma. Regardless of the calculations of the long-dead monstrosity, Zeratul could no longer deny that the threat was growing and that the invasion could happen at any time. In all likelihood, it would strike at the heart of the Terran empire. The last prophecy eluded to that as well. In that future, the Terrans were the first to be destroyed by the Fallen One's might, after all.

The prelate reached out with his mind, hoping to find any trace of Tassadar, or anything else that could guide him. But to no avail. The spirit of the Protoss' greatest hero was nowhere to be found. Not that it would make a difference. With or without his advice, Zeratul had to act. The Overmind's first prophecy had proven to be correct thus far. There was no reason to assume this one was wrong. Even it was, the memory was clear enough: the Terrans needed to be warned of the doom that would soon befall them. But who would believe him? If he couldn't convince his own people of the threat, how was he supposed to persuade an alien?

Raynor. James Raynor would listen to him.

He had to find him, no matter the cost. The fate of all creation could depend on it.

**Moebius Foundation Laboratory, Augustgrad, Korhal**

While Arcturus Mengsk could say much about this Duran person, he had to acknowledge that the man did know how to get things done. A trait the emperor sorely needed in his people, now that his empire was slowly slipping through his fingers. Indeed, he was promised a weapon and by God did the stranger deliver: the final key to developing a fully functioning Protoss/Zerg hybrid. The emperor was so impressed, that he decided to take time out of his busy schedule and perform a personal inspection of one of the labs.

"Ah, my lord." Dr. Narud, the head researcher of the project, said. "Good, you're here. I thought you'd send an aide, but it's good that you didn't. Given the classified nature of my work, I prefer not having to talk to proxies. Security leaks, of course."

While the doctor was a genius, he did have a habit of not getting to the point. Something that annoyed Mengsk greatly. "Yes, I suppose you're right. Now, the Project."

"Oh, of course. Well, as you can see here…" Narud pointed to the hybrid creature in the cage, sparring with several robotic predator units. "…our newest creation is quite capable in combat." Almost on cue, the hybrid lashed out, impaling one of the predators with its talons while shrugging of the bites from the others. "We're not quite done with the tests, but preliminary results show that their talons are sharp enough to carve through military-grade plating and Zerg carapace with relative ease. Also, with their limited psychic abilities and regeneration, I'd reckon that it's easier to bring down an ultralisk than it is to kill one of these. So, yes, I call this project a complete success."

The emperor himself did not share the doctor's boundless (and rather frightening) enthusiasm. Looking at the creature before him, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. It almost felt like…it was waiting for something. "Doctor, you've left out the most important part. This project is about to create one of the most lethal pieces of military hardware in the history of mankind. I need to make sure that they answer to me, and me alone. Are they obedient?"

"Completely, my lord. No question there. A simple transmitter, fitted with a low-yield psi-emitter. Programming encoded on the genetic level force the hybrid to respond. Rather elegant, if you ask me."

"If it's so simple, why couldn't you have figured it out yourself?"

Narud scoffed, seemingly unafraid or unaware of the emperor's limited patience. "Elegant doesn't always mean simple, my lord. The skill in genetic engineering to accomplish such a feat must have been incredible. Whoever provided this to us is to be commended. Maybe with a Nobel Prize, if this project wasn't classified. He saved us years of work and a possible repeat of the Castanar Incident. At any rate, your source provided us with the missing piece of the puzzle: an infallible means to control our creations which, up to this point, had always eluded us. Not to mention that these improved stasis fields have made life so much easier for us. Now that we have the ability to mass-produce these things, you will soon have an army that can stop the Zerg dead in their tracks."

"Indeed, the Zerg…" '…and everyone else who challenges me', the emperor wanted to add. An army of obedient, near unstoppable aliens? A legion of gingerbread men from hell? It practically made his mouth water. Soon, he would have no need for propaganda to keep the people from rebelling. Fear would keep his people in line. Fear of certain death at the hands of the hybrids. That said, why stop at his own people? What about the race traitors that lived beyond the Dominion's borders, or the Protoss, or even Earth itself?

"But you know what really makes me happy? We can make them even better! If I got my hands on the Xel'Naga device your son has appropriated…oh, the possibilities are endless!" The doctor seemed entirely too happy about the future prospects of his research. Mengsk wondered if he should drop some hints with the human resource departments to have more frequent psych-evaluations. Then again, you shouldn't criticize a man who genuinely loved his work. After all, they're easier to manipulate and don't demand as much pay.

Still, there was something off about these creatures. They had this strange, evil aura about them. Something that Mengsk couldn't quite place…

Nah, he was just imagining things. "I'll try to get your artifact back once I find that no-good son of mine. In the mean time, however, carry on."

"With pleasure, sir. With pleasure."

_A/N Before anyone mentions the Overmind being a little too dead to still be sprouting prophecies, consider this: if there was nothing left of the Overmind except a giant pile of luncheon meat, why would the Zerg on Aiur even bother to defend it? The thing is, there are varying grades of deadness and a city-sized brain doesn't succumb easily. Is it dead? Yes. In the same way a headless chicken is technically dead, but can still take a few steps before falling over._


	91. Chapter 91

**Bridge, Bucephalus, Dylarian Shipyards. **

Gone.

The Dylarian shipyards were gone.

Destroyed.

Annihilated.

Prince Valerian couldn't hide his shock. Then again, what could possibly prepare someone for the sight of dozens, if not hundreds, of ships that have been reduced to space dust. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands who served aboard those vessels and the dockyards themselves. Even Warfield would have been dumbstruck by something like this. The loss of ships alone, however, wasn't the worst of it. Without the shipyards, the Dominion fleet wouldn't be able to replace their losses as effectively. Whoever destroyed them, just crippled humanity's ability to wage an interstellar war, and the timing couldn't have been worse.

The blow was even more devastating to the prince because up to this point, everything had been going as planned. He had managed to stay one step ahead of his father's agents and even had several contingencies in place if anything went wrong. The emperor's fall seemed inevitable now that he had much of the fleet, several core worlds, and even Raynor's Raiders on his side. For the first time since the Terran's arrival in this sector, peace didn't seem like a distant dream anymore. An illusion that was cruelly and utterly shattered by the destruction before him. It was a reminder that the defeat of his father was only the beginning. While his men hadn't determined who was responsible, Valerian knew who it was. He hoped he was wrong. He prayed that he was wrong. But he knew in his heart that he wasn't.

"My lord," the sensors officer said. "our preliminary report."

As the man was about to give it to him, Valerian held up his hand. "Please, the short version." He didn't want to hear all the details. The few ships hailing the Bucephalus and the debris field he could see outside the window already told him more than he wanted to know. It took every ounce of willpower he had not to break down into tears.

"Well, it's not making much sense, your highness. Our first suspect was the Zerg, but it looks like they weren't the only ones attacking. Impact analysis show damage from a wide range of weapons on our ships: Lasers and projectile weapons, but also plasma burns and evidence of high-intensity energy beams only used by the Protoss. Sir, if I didn't know any better, I'd say that an army of Protoss, Zerg, and humans decided to get together and blow this place to smithereens. It doesn't make sense."

Unfortunately, it did make sense to the Prince. He knew that the true enemy wasn't a Protoss, or a Zerg, or even a Terran, but something far worse. It was the same entity that the Ihan crystal warned him about, he was sure of it. "Well, keep looking for clues, especially if you can find any recordings. I want to know who did this and what kind of force they used. Call in some salvage teams from worlds loyal to us. We need to get to the bottom of this. While you're at it, contact the Hyperion and tell them to find Kerrigan. We need to meet as soon as possible. As for the hails…ignore them. They'll have to wait for the relief fleet…" God, he sounded just like his father. As badly as he wanted to go out there and help, but he knew better than to try. A single ship could only do so much and the Bucephalus would soon be needed elsewhere. Someone would have to find and stop the culprit, after all. Valerian noticed hesitation in some of his crewmembers. "Something wrong?"

"Sir…a major Dominion instillation has just been hit by the Zerg. What if the Queen of Blades was behind it?"

He couldn't deny that he suspected Kerrigan too. Still, he knew it couldn't be her. The Zerg ruler was angry with the Dominion, and rightfully so, but she had put a lid on her hatred, as far as the prince knew anyway. Besides, her feelings for Raynor were far too strong to betray him now. Hopefully. In any case, it was unlikely that she'd ever get the Protoss to fight alongside her in the first place. "If it was, there wouldn't have been any Protoss with her. They'd never trust her enough to go to battle by her side again and even she shouldn't be powerful enough to mind-control an entire fleet." And if it was Kerrigan, he nearly added, they'd all be doomed anyway. As much as he hated to admit it, she was still the muscle in this army Valerian was trying to create. If she decided to turn traitor, humanity would have to face the hybrid threat alone. It that were the case, things would turn bad a lot more quickly that he had hoped…

"My lord," Another officer said, "a relief force from Braxis will arrive in soon."

"Good. Find the Hyperion and plot a course when you do. I need to talk to them yesterday."

**Leviathan, Marrakesh**

It has been said that the mind is a terrible thing to read. That telepathy is more a curse then a blessing. From Kerrigan's point of view, that statement could not have been more accurate. Psychics would not do well in a society of non-telepaths, even when ignoring things like the Ghost Program. The simple truth was that human society was held together by deception. Everyone lies to everyone else for one reason or another, and mankind has accepted that. After all, would you really want to know what people think of you when they see you walking down the street? Especially if they, in spite of all your efforts, really, really hated you?

Kerrigan didn't have the luxury of blissful ignorance. Every mind and every thought was audible, especially to a telepath of her capacity. Even when surrounded by thousands of Zerg, she could still make out the individual thoughts of the small band of humans that she was ferrying around, and the thoughts were almost always the same: fear, disgust, and a little bit of scientific curiosity. The first two were understandable. After all, the Raiders have fought dozens of bloody battles with the Zerg. Each of them had probably lost someone they cared about to her Swarm at some point. These kind of scars do not vanish overnight. One rescue hardly balances out four years of death and destruction. It was the curious thoughts that really worried her. It reminded her of Abathur after she'd dropped another heap of samples in his lab: someone who saw a nice toy and wanted to cut it open to see how it works. Poetic justice or not, it made her really uncomfortable. The fact that the Terrans were acting so uncomfortable was making her uncomfortable. Apart from Raynor, not one of them had dared taken off their armor, or even set foot outside the hold she'd cleared for them. They barely even talked to one another, for fear that she'd listen in. It was just another reminder that she was still the enemy in their eyes. They tolerated her, but only barely, and she knew it was about to get even worse.

Since Jim's first thoughts were, naturally, of the rest of his crew, she contacted the Hyperion for a rendezvous as soon as she was able. They agreed, and they promised to meet her at Marrakesh. It was Kerrigan's own idea to show the Raiders the Swarm's new stronghold; while she realized that it would only be a matter of time before the rest of the sector knew where it was if she revealed it to anyone, she wanted to show them that she was willing to entrust them with this secret regardless. She hoped that she'd be able to earn a little faith from the Raiders by showing her hand, but now, the queen wasn't so sure anymore. Judging by the 'trust' she was getting from the men and women she sprung from the White Star, seeing that she'd learned from the Queen of Blades' defeat would probably make them even more suspicious. Marrakesh was much better defended than Char ever was, after all. Even though they'd moved to a smaller ship, showing the Raiders this place would almost certainly come across as showing off.

Worst of all, however, was Raynor's offer to let her board the Hyperion. He wanted her by his side, saying that she was a bigger part of this war than he could ever be and that she had the right to talk to everyone face-to-face, but also to stop him from killing Valerian the first chance he got. Of course, she couldn't really refuse. Part of her wanted to go, if only to close her eyes and briefly pretend that the good old days had returned, but another part reminded her that she'd feel the hate of everyone in the ship again. After all, they weren't all that grateful the last time she saved their skins.

"Mistress, are you well?" Izsha asked. "You're brooding. As you just reminded a certain someone, that's unhealthy."

It was true, as much as Kerrigan wanted to deny it. Then again, as the ruler of a galactic power, she was entitled to a little hypocrisy every now and then. "Just…concerned what will happen when the Raiders show up and see our little planet. Can't help but wonder why we never fortified Char like this. If that planet was half as well defended as this one is now…"

"Then the Dominion's fleet would have been annihilated and history would have unfolded differently. Maybe for the better, maybe for worse. I guess we'll never know. I can tell you, however, that the Queen had refused to fortify that world, believing static defenses to be a waste of resources. After all, who would be crazy enough to attack the Zerg capital directly?"

A gruff, masculine voice responded. "A love-sick drunk with a magical artifact, that's who. And don't you worry about what other people will think. We'll need a safe spot in case things go sideways, even if it's crawling with Zerg. God knows, I've invoked Murphy's Law more often than I can count…"

"I just hope that'll be enough." Kerrigan responded. "The last thing we need now is to be mistrusted by our own allies."

"That's gonna happen anyway, I'm guessing. We'll be fine, though. Trust me, I've had stranger bedfellows than you." Raynor said, almost guiltily.

"Somehow, Jim, I don't believe that."

"Really? Well, let's just say that if I ever live to see my grandchildren, you can bet that mine will have the craziest stories to bring to show-and-tell. Not that they'll believe any of them, but I guess that's kind of the point of being a crazy old coot."

"Grandchildren? You're thinking about that, now, at the brink of a war?" Truth be told, part of her liked the thought. The idea of a real future, one where she could just be Sarah…

"Best time there is." Jim said, grinning. "You gotta have something to keep you going through all this. Something worth fighting for. If there's no bright future on the horizon, what's the point?"

"That's…surprisingly hopeful, coming from you. You haven't been talking to the broodmothers, have you?"

Pretending to be hurt, he said, mockingly: "Sarah, you wound me. Is it really that hard to believe that I'm feeling happier with you around?"

"Well, no…"

"Then zip it, darlin'. You saved me and my boys. You're one of the good guys, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they can go space themselves." Upon noticing that she wasn't entirely convinced, Raynor added: "You can take some of your people on the ship. I'm sure Matt won't mind and it'll be good for my men to meet a few reasonably friendly Zerg. The last one wasn't that bad, after all. Just make sure they're potty-trained. I don't think anyone wants to be cleaning up Zerg droppings."

"You know I don't need protection, right? If bullets start flying, I'm pretty sure I can fight my way out…"

A glimpse of understanding formed on the commander's face. "You're worried about everyone still being angry at you for…well, you know…"

"Yeah…" The queen replied, guiltily. "I don't think bodyguards can protect me from that…"

"Hey, I'm here, and I'm…"

"…utterly incapable of dropping the knight-in-shining-armor routine. I know. You wouldn't be Jim Raynor if you could. Now, if we had a little more privacy…" She said, shooting a glare at Izsha.

"Mistress, I am rooted to the leviathan," The adjutant replied, dryly. "and your predecessor didn't mind openly flirting with her consorts. It's not like I haven't seen worse…"

Raynor chuckled awkwardly. "And that's why I prefer a nice, cybernetic adjutant. We should pick up where we left off in my cabin. Assuming Matt hasn't taken it for himself."

"He wouldn't do that. He's too much of a boy scout to even dare." Kerrigan said, grinning. Her smile faded, however. "Then again, people change. Just look at me…"

"People change. But not in the ways that really matter. For better or for worse."

Through the leviathan's senses, Kerrigan could feel the Hyperion entering the system and the ship moving in to dock with it. "Your ship just arrived. We'll have to get going soon."

"Well, guess we better get ready to face the music."

"Nervous, Jim?"

"There's gonna be a decontamination team there. Probably nothing too crazy, but they'll still need to take blood…Have I ever told you I hate needles?"

Kerrigan laughed in surprise. "You? With all your tattoos?"

"Hey, a lot of people don't like needles!" He said in his defense.

"Sure they don't…you big softy."

The two said no more, until the leviathan docked with the Hyperion. Raynor ordered his men out first, before letting himself out with Kerrigan by his side. He had hoped that his little show would put the rest of the crew at ease. This way, everyone's attention would be on the returning heroes, rather than the rather questionable allies that saved them. A little symbolism tends to go a long way when you're in command.

As expected, he and his men were greeted with cheers. Some of the crew, many of whom were practically family to each other, ran towards them, hugging their friends and comrades-in-arms. Or tried to anyway, since everyone was wearing a suit. Apparently, they weren't cheerful enough to ignore the fact that they walked out of the maw of a giant Zerg monster. At least they didn't react violently to seeing Kerrigan or her escorts: Nova and two former humans whom apparently were critical in their rescue. Then again, ignoring the elephant in the room was probably the best reaction he could have hoped for, Raynor realized to his dismay. This alliance was going to be very difficult…

Captain Horner, dressed in his usual military uniform, appeared and saluted. "Good to have you back, sir." Turning to the Zerg queen, he nodded and politely said. "Kerrigan." To his credit, he masked his feelings for her very well.

"Nice to see you too, Matt." The commander replied. "Good to see that the ship's still intact. That said, Sarah did mention that we're working for Valerian again. How did that happen?"

"Long story, short, sir? He had a change of heart and we needed him. Not to say that I trust him yet, but of all the people with any real political power in the Dominion, he's the only one whose hands are still relatively clean. Without him, we'll have anarchy on our hands once we kick Mengsk of his throne."

As much as Raynor hated working with someone who betrayed him mere weeks ago, he understood the necessity. Arcturus Mengsk was bad, but anarchy wasn't much better. Especially considering what's coming… "Good to see that someone on this crate is still thinking ahead. Speaking of Junior, where is he? Ally or not, I still owe him a punch to the face."

"He'll be here in an hour or so. Had to make a detour, but he didn't say why. He did ask me to make sure Kerrigan was here as well. Something big happened, something about the Dylarian shipyards."

Raynor frowned. "Sounds bad."

"Probably because it is." Horner replied, grimly. "At any rate, that'll give you more than enough time to give a blood sample and get a fresh change of clothes."

"What's wrong with this shirt? I always wear it, even on formal occasions. It's part of my roguish charm."

"Commander, you just walked out of a leviathan after being stuck in the brig for weeks…"

"I don't really smell that bad, do I?"

"Yes, sir, you do. Now, please get changed before you set off the biohazard alarms. Which…" The captain turned to the rest of the crew. "…also counts for the rest of you. Blood sample and decontamination." The crew muttered in protest, but obeyed regardless. "Also, Kerrigan, I'm going to ask you to keep your…bodyguards in here. The crew is worried enough about being in a system full of Zerg. I'd rather not aggravate them further." Kerrigan simply nodded in response. If she or any of the other Zerg had cared about what could be interpreted as an insult, they weren't showing it. "By the way, commander, that package you ordered with Swan after Char? It's arrived and has been delivered to your cabin per your instructions."

"Almost forgot about that, Matt, thanks. Now, if you'd excuse me…"

"What package?" Kerrigan asked.

"Oh, something you'll like, I'm sure." With that, Raynor left with Kerrigan in tow. Horner couldn't help but notice how the Zerg queen had barely spoken since she arrived on his ship. In fact, she almost seemed to fall in line behind the commander, as if she was using him as a human security blanket. It was…unsettling, to see her play vulnerable when Horner knew that she could have everyone on this ship killed with a single thought. It made him wonder if it was an act, or if she was genuinely afraid of something. Whatever it was, if it became a problem that he needed to solve, they'd ask for help. Until then, he decided to keep himself busy plotting an escape route. Having to stick around in a Zerg-controlled system for any length of time made him antsy. Especially if they were in range of a downright ridiculous number of what could only be ground-to-space gun emplacements.


	92. Chapter 92

**Captain's Quarters, Hyperion, Marrakesh**

"So, what is it?"

"A surprise, Sarah. Trust me, you'll like it." Raynor said with a cheeky smile on his face. "And no peeking in my head!"

"You're not making things easy for me, Jim."

"And you wouldn't have me any other way. Admit it."

In Raynor's quarters, there stood a rectangular and roughly human-sized box. Kerrigan couldn't help but be very curious. Not that anyone could blame her: Raynor was trying his hardest to think about anything other than its contents. Had to be important if he put this much effort into it. It was actually quite endearing how badly he wanted to surprise her. A rare treat for a telepath, and a welcome one.

"So…"

"Open it up. I'm getting real tired of reciting childhood cartoons just to keep you out."

And so she did. What was inside left her speechless. "Jim…Jim, this is a ghost's hostile environment suit…environmentally sealed, psi-sensitive muscle fibers, a cloaking device…How did you even…"

"Let's just say that I know some people who rob some people. Sometimes it's good to have friends in low places. I figured that we're in the gift-giving stage of our relationship, and I know how you feel about dresses, so…Omphf!" Raynor winched as Kerrigan hugged him tightly and kissed him on the cheek. "Well, you're welcome. Besides, you needed a new suit anyway. I mean, just look at your old one…"

"It's seen better days." Kerrigan quietly replied. In spite of her best efforts, it was riddled with bullet holed and held together with spit and prayers. She really needed a replacement.

"Call that an understatement. You look like you've bear-hugged a lawn mower. Imagine what people will think of me if I let my girlfriend walk around in that outfit."

"They'll think we're a match made in heaven. It's beautiful, Jim."

"You're welcome. Call this my way of saying 'thank you for saving my sorry hide'. Now, do you think you can peel of your old suit on your own, or are you going to need some help…"

"I think I can manage…Oh, you're horrible!" Of course, there's no way you could hide any 'ulterior motives' from a telepath. Still, can't blame a guy for trying.

Kerrigan disappeared into the bathroom with her new suit like a child that's just gotten her Christmas present. Now that he thought about it, this was probably the first time since the Sons of Korhal that she seemed giddy about something. It felt good seeing her like this. Raynor himself changed into something that didn't smell so much of Zerg. He probably should be wearing something formal, but he honestly didn't care enough about Valerian to walk around in a fancy outfit. He couldn't help but be suspicious. Matt seemed to believe he was on their side, which wasn't that easy, but Raynor had been betrayed one too many times to trust a Mengsk blindly. After all, you have to get behind someone before you can stab them in the back…

As he finished putting on his shirt, he noticed that it was awfully quiet in the bathroom. Walking over to check on her, he found his girl naked, looking at herself in the mirror. What he was looking at, however, was nothing like beautiful woman he remembered. Her skin had turned into a patchwork of pink, purple, and brown. A horrific collage of human flesh and Zerg carapace. All the happiness had drained from her face as she traced her corrupted skin, looking on in despair as she felt her claws (claws?!) touch a body that was her own, but felt alien to her nonetheless.

"Who am I, Jim?" She asked, weakly. Raynor didn't know how to answer that. He had known that Kerrigan was still infested when she pulled off her gloves the last time she was here. He should have figured that it would probably spread to the rest of her body at some point. He should have, but did his best not to think about it. Not to think about what it would mean for her and everyone else. If this was happening to her body, what was happening to the outside, one could only imagine what was going on in her mind…

No. No, he couldn't allow himself to think like that. She was still herself. She would always be herself, no matter what the Zerg did to her. Kerrigan was too strong to be anyone but herself. Raynor immediately shut all thought of doubt from his mind. She was a telepath, after all, and he couldn't let his doubts become her own. "What are you talking about, Sarah? You're _you_."

Kerrigan looked at him with those big, green eyes of hers. She didn't believe a word he said. Then again, she couldn't be blamed for that. He wasn't too sure of it either. "They said it was going to happen, no matter what. I just hoped it wasn't so soon."

"Who, the Zerg?"

"Who else? They're the experts…" She laughed, mirthlessly. "And they were right. As much as I fought it, as much as I've been denying, it's all nothing more than a reprieve. I guess I carried a little piece of my old self with me all along."

"Don't say that! Don't you dare say that! You're not _her_!" He couldn't even pronounce the words 'Queen of Blades'. Too many bad memories. "I love you, and I'm not losing you again." 'Even if I have to slice the scales off of you with a knife', he mentally added.

"That's not going to work. They'll just grow back." She lowered her head. "One of my men, a former human like me, is sort of working his way through a depression. Turns out that the memories of his human life are hurting him so much that he can't live with himself anymore. I should feel sorry for him, but all I can do is feel jealous that he's been human to begin with."

"You're human too, Sarah. How often do I have to tell you that?"

"I'm a monster. I've always been a monster." She continued. "I've lied, I've stolen, and I've murdered my way through every obstacle in my life. First for the Confederacy, then for Arcturus, then as the Queen of Blades. Now, finally free, I could have run. I could have gathered all the Zerg and ordered them to fly into the nearest star. Leave all this death and destruction behind me. What do I do instead? I use them as a weapon and start plotting to murder someone. Hell, if it wasn't for you, I would have invaded Korhal already, regardless of the collateral damage. But most damning of all…I realize that I just don't care. I _want _to care. I've convinced myself that I _should_ care, but it doesn't come naturally to me anymore. How is that even human? Every human cares. How can I not, and still call myself human, when all I've left is guilt and a quest for revenge?"

Raynor could only stare in shock at the woman's confession. He knew that her experiences would leave scars. How couldn't it? However, he had no idea that it would hurt her this much. Kerrigan was strong. Far stronger than he would ever be. After a long pause to gather his thoughts, he replied: "Sarah, do you know how many people I've killed? How many good men I've sent on suicide missions?"

"It's not the same!" She snarled back.

"No, it's not. I don't fully understand what you're going through, but I know what it's like to have blood on your hands. It won't go away. It never will. But that doesn't matter. What matters is what you do with it. You wanna be someone better? Be someone better. Yes, it's corny, but that doesn't make it any less true. We're on the brink of war, you've got an army. Help me save the human race."

"It won't be enough…"

"Maybe, but it's good enough for me. I don't need a weapon, Sarah. I need you. Not the ghost, not the queen, but the woman. We're going to fight this, together." To prove his point, Raynor picked up two pieces of the suit's plating. "Now, where do these go?"

"Body-glove goes first…" She replied, weakly.

"Ah…" Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. "You wouldn't mind if I…"

"Go. I can handle myself."

Raynor walked to the door, quietly wondering if he should punch whoever interrupted him and his little moment with Sarah. The woman needed him, dammit! She was hurt, and he had no idea how to ease her pain. The door opened, and he realized that the offender was a large, green-eyed Protoss. "Zeratul! How did you get…oh never mind. Dark Templar. What are you doing here?"

"I come bearing a warning for you and your…allies. The enemy has set his plan in motion and they will strike at any time. I need you…"

The commander raised his hand and interrupted him. "Look, Mengsk Junior is coming in a few minutes and we'll all be on the bridge soon. You can tell us all about it then. I'm not fighting this whole thing by myself, you know. The others need to hear this too."

"I understand. There is another matter that requires my attention, however…" The Dark Templar pointed towards the half-dressed queen that was standing in the doorway. Kerrigan looked at the Protoss with a mixture of fear, pain, and anger. Raynor didn't quite know what to make of it. "I need to speak with her. Alone."

"She's on our side, Zeratul." The commander said, almost as a warning.

"Raynor, your wisdom and experience exceeds that of those centuries your senior, yet there is one issue in which I cannot trust your judgment. She has deceived us all before. I cannot take that risk again, not without know for certain if she is who you think she is."

Raynor was reluctant, to say the least. There were few people in the universe that he trusted more than the Nerazim in front of him, but if there was anyone who deserved to take Kerrigan's head, it would certainly be him. "If she gets hurt…"

"If I wished her dead, she would be already." Zeratul calmly replied.

"Fair enough. Sarah?"

"It's okay, Jim." She said. "Let him in."

With no further protest, except from his own heart, he left the two to their own devices. Immediately, he regretted it and wondered if he should tell the crew to run to the escape pods…

Kerrigan felt crowded. Yes, the room was large. Yes, Protoss aren't _that_ big. Still, the waves of cold hatred rolling of the Dark Templar made her feel like she was drowning. It started to trigger memories in her mind that she had tried very hard to suppress. Violence, betrayal, murder…most of it was little more than a frightening nightmare at this point, even if it shouldn't be. But him…the memories involving Zeratul were different. Far more personal. Then again, Kerrigan knew that she didn't just kill him. What she did to the old Protoss was much worse than that.

"Kerrigan." He said, in a tone that made her wonder if her name had become synonymous with 'evil' in the Protoss language. "Your presence here is unwelcome, but not unexpected. It was my hope that our paths would not cross, but perhaps it is for the best that they did. I have put this off for far too long." The prelate took a few steps forward until he was close enough to touch her. "What do you want?"

What did she want? What kind of question is that? How was she even supposed to answer? Was it genuine interest, or was there some sort of angle she couldn't see? Would he cram that warp blade of his down her throat if she gave him the 'wrong' answer? Why was he asking _her_ anyway? "What I want? Why would you even care?"

"Presume that I do."

She looked at him, incredulously, but answered anyway. "What I want? What I want is to hop on the back of Jim's vulture and hold tight while he drives off into the sunset. What I want is a house, and a family, and all the other things all the normal people get. What I want is to leave everything behind and have the good, normal, _human_ life that has been denied to me my entire life! Where I don't have to worry about losing my mind, or look in the mirror and see a monster. But I'm not going to have that, am I? I'll always be someone's plaything, be it fate, the Confederacy, of my own goddamn body!" She was yelling at him. Why was she doing that?

"Perhaps you will. In many ways, an eternity of repentance would be a fitting punishment for your crimes. But the truth is, Kerrigan: I hate you. I hate you for slaughtering countless of my people and forcing me to end the life my own matriarch. The only reason you still stand on your feet is because of your importance, and nothing else."

"So you're just like everyone else, huh? I'm either a weapon or a walking time-bomb to you."

"I am being far more kind than I should be. By right, I should end you. Do you have any memory of the atrocities you have committed? Can you even imagine ending the life of a someone as dear to you as your own mother?!"

Kerrigan wasn't one to ask for pity, but she really expected some form of understanding from this damnable Protoss. What the hell did he know about her suffering anyway? She should have ripped out his tongue, if he had one. "Can you imagine what it's like to see someone else do that? Can you imagine what it's like to be trapped inside your own mind, completely powerless? Four years, Zeratul! Four years of beating on a wall, four years of rattling the cage, four years of watching my body torture and kill and there was NOTHING I could do to stop it! Now, here you are, all mighty and noble, laying all the blame at _me_. ME! The only person more powerless to do anything about it than you!"

Zeratul looked at her inquisitively. "Then you feel remorse. You would not have lashed out at me if you did not. Perhaps Raynor's judgments are more accurate than I believed."

Taking a moment to breath an calm down, she couldn't help but wonder what his game was. "Then…that's it? We're best of palls now?" She asked incredulously.

"No, we are not. Make no mistake: we will have justice, one way or another. I cannot forgive you for the pain you have caused, whether you believe yourself to be guilty of it or not. Perhaps Raszagal would have, were she still alive, but I do not possess her kindness. Even if I did, my people would not rest until you and the Swarm is but a distant memory. However, we will need numbers to best our current foe. While my instincts scream at me not to, I have no choice but to put my faith in you once again."

He needed her. She was a means to an end, just like she always was. "So what happens now?"

Zeratul looked at her with a coldness only a master of the void could possess. "I cannot kill you, even though I wish I could. Without you, the Swarm will fall under the sway of the hybrids, and that I cannot allow. For the moment, I suggest we bury our hatred until this war reaches its conclusion. I know that Raynor cares for you, and I do not wish to antagonize one of the few friends I have left by opposing you. However, if you betray us again, if you break Raynor's heart or body," Zeratul activated his warp blade, bringing it to mere inches from Kerrigan's face. "I swear by the gods that you will curse the day you chose to spare my life. Do you understand?"

Kerrigan hated being threatened. Her instincts were telling her not to let this insolence happen, that no one gets to insult a Queen and get away with it unpunished, but she managed to control herself. This was still Raynor's friend, after all, and she wasn't _her_. "I understand."

"Good. We should depart. I do not believe it is wise to keep our allies waiting."


	93. Chapter 93

**Underground Laboratory, Korhal**

He grew tired of this womb.

Tired of these wires in his body. Tired of being in this cage while the little pink things scurry around him, blabbering in their guttural tongues. Tired of being deprived.

Who was he? Bah, that didn't matter. At least, that's what the great, dark voice kept telling him. He was part of a great plan. A critical piece of the puzzle, but just a piece nonetheless. He shouldn't be worrying about irrelevant things. Rather, he should be preparing himself for his role. He should teach himself to hate and learn how to use that hatred to destroy the enemies of the voice. It shouldn't be too hard. After all, the pink skins looked so fragile. Barely any meat on their bones. Hardly a worthy foe for perfection incarnate, but the voice wished them destroyed when the time was right, and so shall it be.

Ah, the voice. From the first moment he was capable of having thought, it was there. It was always there, in one way or another. He called it 'Father'. It liked that. It told him of the past, and of the future, and the part he was to play in it. Its plan was so simple, and yet perfect in its design. In its infinite wisdom, the voice had persuaded the little things to take him and his siblings into their nest. Then, when he and the others were strong enough, they would be unleashed. They would sow chaos and destruction, destroying the nest from within, while the voice's servants would come from the sky. Then, the feasting would begin.

Such a simple ploy. He could only wonder how the pink things could have fallen for it. Then again, they were only vermin. What else could be expected of them?

The womb cracked open. He fell on the ground, ignoring the pain that the tubes caused him as they were ripped out of his body. He was strong. He would not show weakness in Father's presence, and its presence was everywhere. All around him, the vermin ran and screamed in terror. Good. He wanted to run, to chase, to hunt these pathetic beings down. All he needed was the voice's blessing.

One he finally received.

He lashed at the nearest creature, slicing it in half. Taking a piece of it in his mouth, he realized that their bodies tasted like something fit for a god. He gleefully jumped at the little things, scattering them like mere insects. It was so much fun, hunting, killing, devouring all that stood in his way.

He looked up and felt, even through the miles of rock and stone, that a great shadow blanketed the area above him. He felt the terror of a billion little minds as Father's servants rained down from the heavens. He felt his siblings joyful roars ripple through the earth. Then, he realized that the end had come for these insects and the whole world was now his.

Just as father promised.

**Bridge, White Star, Dylarian Shipyards**

"Alright, I want a sit-rep!" General Morrigan bellowed.

The entire bridge, which was bursting with activity mere moments before, turned silent until Williams asked in wonder: "General? How the hell did you get here? I had you strapped to your bed in the medical bay!"

Morrigan snarled. "If I tell you how I got out, you'll do the restraints properly the next time you decide to get rid of me. Consider your mutinous ass court-martialed if we both survive till the end of the month. Now, sit-rep!"

Williams' face turned sour, both from having his infuriating superior back, and from having to deliver bad news to said infuriating superior. On the one hand, he could just tell him where to stick it, and call security. On the other… "Take a look out of the window, sir. That should give you a good idea. Our sensors aren't working yet, so we can't look for survivors, but…I'm not holding my breath. Apart from a few ships on the far side of the debris field warping on and off, there isn't much alive here."

Morrigan turned to look at the debris outside, but his expression didn't change. "Just as I feared…" He finally said.

"Sir?"

"The Dylarian shipyards were always our greatest weakness, captain." The general explained. "Sure, a massive complex like that is efficient, but keeping much of our fleet and orbital production in one place leaves us vulnerable. When the UED attacked here four years ago, they crippled our fleet in a single stroke. Any smart opponent would try to do the same, now. I warned them, told them that putting all our eggs in one basket is a bad idea, but nobody listened. 'It's so much cheaper to keep our forces in one place' they said. Goddamn paranoia, I said. The emperor only wanted to keep all his men in one place, watching each other for signs of betrayal while he threw billions at hunting down rebels and terrorists. Now, we're all paying the price for Dominion 'efficiency'." The general looked more closely at the wreckage. "Well, at least they put up some cannons this time around. The defenders put up a hell of a fight, judging by the debris…lots of dead mutalisks…a leviathan…Wait, is that a gutted Void Ray?"

"Yes, general. We found a few Protoss ships amongst the wrecks, along with plenty of camera footage and hull damage suggesting their involvement."

Morrigan stroked his chin. He didn't seem very surprised. "Interesting. Apparently, she's either more cunning or more powerful than I thought…"

"Sir?"

"The Queen of Blades has apparently managed to recruit Protoss to their side. Given their history and the fact that they're biologically incapable of being infested, I didn't think that was even possible."

"With respect, general…I don't think this was the Queen of Blades…"

That caught the general by surprise. "Based on what, exactly?"

"I've been reviewing the Swarm's movements the past few weeks. None of them indicate any form of aggression against the Dominion directly. Every time they attacked us, it was because we put ourselves in their way. L-540, Dead Man's Rock, even the last attack near Umoja, all of them happened because _we_ meddled in their affairs. _We_ were the aggressors, one way or another. Think about it: Why would they attack now? Why didn't they attack right after Dead Man's Rock? Why didn't they hunt us down when we retreated from L-540. Why give us time to regroup and recover?"

The general frowned. "Your point?"

"I know it sounds insane, but what if Raynor was right? What if the Zerg are somehow different?"

"They're still killing machines, captain. I know, because you've spent all Monday on the funerals for the men they've killed."

A low blow, Williams thought. He cared for his crew and the losses hurt him more than that sorry excuse of a general could imagine. Nevertheless, he knew he was right. "Yes. Yes, I did. But at least I am still breathing. If this was the old Swarm, none of us would be. Besides, you know who's funeral I wasn't giving? Yours! You were one second away from blowing your brains out and a Zerg stopped you. A Zerg _saved your life_! How can you explain that, except by acknowledging that Raynor may have been right about them all along?"

The general stared out the window, in silence, contemplating. "You also remember that his theory involve cosmic horrors and hybrids of doom, right? Let's just say that it's more likely that it's all part of the Zerg Queen's plans. Better men than you or he have fallen for them and it wouldn't be first time she's tried something like this. At the end of the day, however, it doesn't matter who attacked us or why. Our job is to stop them, not to understand them. Whatever their motives, it doesn't matter anymore."

"Oh, of course it does, you can't…"

"As far as targets go, the Dylarian Shipyards are about as hard as they get, captain. There's only one reason why anyone would risk so much to destroy the shipyards: they want to cripple the Dominion fleet and pave the way for an imminent invasion. Now that they've succeeded, they'll inevitably move to the next stage of their plan. I think they'll strike Korhal soon. Hell, they're probably on their way already as we speak."

The captain shook his head. "Sir, Korhal is a fortress, even without the fleet protecting it. Trying to attack it directly is practically suicide."

"Is it? The Zerg are numberless and it's well worth the risk. The Dominion military and government are located on that planet. You take out Korhal and the Dominion will fall apart in a collection of individual planets, unable to mount a united front. You take out any world _but_ Korhal, and you're only giving the Dominion time to recover. Cut of the head, the body dies. This attack was nothing more than a prelude for what comes next."

"Which is?" Even as he said it, Williams knew the answer.

Morrigan lowered his head, before burning straight into Williams with his gaze. "Repair the sensors and get this ship operational as soon as possible. Send a message to Korhal. Tell them that they could be attacked at any time. Drop my name if you have to. In the mean time, scrounge the wreckage for survivors and any supplies we might need. Gather up every ship with a warp drive. We'll need them soon. Send me all the data you've gathered about our mystery attacker to my quarters. We're in for a long war…"

**Armory, Hyperion, Marrakesh**

Kat was fiddling around with her suit, agitated that she was stuck in this damn armory until her blood samples were tested. Yes, Stetmann was working as fast as he could. Yes, it was protocol to confine anyone in contact with the Zerg until it was certain that they weren't infested. Still, it was annoying as hell. Her place was either in the med-bay, a lab, or the cantina. Not in a room full of damn war-machines. Worst of all, protocol wouldn't let her have access to any of the ship-board channels, just in case she's actually been turned into a spy.

Thus, she was bored out of her mind. Just like she was on the Zerg ship. Admittedly, that was for her own safety: if the Zerg wanted to infest anyone, a lone medic wandering the corridors would have been an easy target. Not that she was particularly worried that anything would happen to her. She was the squad medic, after all. She had unlimited access to a suit filled with scanners and sensors that would go haywire the instant a breach was detected. While she wasn't an expert, she knew that even the Zerg couldn't infest someone wearing a sealed suit of power armor without the wearer noticing it. As long as they didn't have a suit breach, they had nothing to fear. The other Raiders didn't share her optimism, though. She ended up spending most of her time scanning her paranoid colleagues and couldn't find the time to take samples. Seriously, they were probably the first humans on a Zerg starship, and they weren't even a little bit interested in how it worked? Still, she kept quiet. It was her job to look after her people, even if the only illness affecting them was a nasty case of hypochondria.

It was then that she noticed the Zerg queen's 'body guards' leaning on some crates in the back of the armory. Two infested humans that had joined their ruler on the Hyperion. It caught her interest almost immediately. Like most of the other medics on the Hyperion, she'd seen her fair share of infested Terrans, both on the battlefield and the vivisection table. She'd never been able to talk to them, however. Now was her chance. Not like she had anything better to do.

Kat resealed her suit (just in case) and activated the cameras and recorders. If she was about to have her first real conversation with a Zerg-altered human, she'd sure as hell record it for posterity. The first thing she noticed was how 'normal' the two seemed. They were talking, occasionally laughing, and sometimes looked around watchfully. Almost like human soldiers would. They also stopped talking immediately when they noticed that she was watching them. Almost like human soldiers would. Maybe Raynor was right. Maybe the Zerg had changed. Now, she'd have to find out how.

Believing that now was as good a time as any to begin a 'pleasant' conversation, she walked over. "Hi there. I'm Kat, squad medic. Mind if I join you?"

"Sure, not at all." The smaller one, a woman by the looks of it, said. Her partner seemed a little more standoffish, however.

"Thank you. You know, I've seen a lot of people like you, but I've never had the chance to talk with one of them. If you don't mind me asking, do you actually remember anything from your life before you…became part of the Swarm?"

The bigger one grunted. "You mean things like the taste of mom's framberry pie? The warmth of my first girlfriend's skin? Or the screams of my friends and coworkers as their legs were torn off their bodies in front of me?" The look he was giving her suggested that this was a bit of a sore point. She mentally scolded herself for not having figured that one out on her own.

The smaller one gave the other an elbow. "Jeez, do you have to depress everyone we meet? No wonder everybody is staying as far away from us as possible. I think you can trust her enough to be nice."

"Well, you know I don't like it when people beat around the bush, Lilith. Besides, we live in a psychic collective. Not much point in telling a lie, now is it?"

"She isn't part of the psychic collective! You can still try to be civil." Lilith, as her name apparently was, turned to her and apologized. "I'm sorry about him. I'm Lilith, and my Neanderthal friend over here is Tai."

"Now, who's not being civil. You can't compare me to a Neanderthal. That's just rude. What if they get offended?"

"They've been extinct for 50,000 years. I think they're a little too dead to be offended."

"So," Kat interrupted, trying to get the conversation back on something resembling a track. "if you remember everything, everyone, how are you so…loyal to your boss? I mean, I can imagine hating her if I were in your shoes…"

"Oh dear," Said Tai. "here we go again…"

"What?" Lilith asked.

"I've had this conversation several times already. She still thinks her majesty is the Queen of Blades."

"But they were the ones who _killed_ the Queen of Blades. Why would they think she's alive if they're the ones who put her down in the first place?"

"Terran logic. Get used to it. If we're going to fight alongside humans for the rest of this conflict, we'll be having this same conversation many, many times.

Kat, defending what she saw as a sensible position, said: "Well, it's the same body with a few bits missing, as far as I can tell. I mean, I've never had an in-depth look at your queen herself, but still… I believe that you think she's a different person, but how do you actually know?"

Lilith looked at her, blankly. "I just…I don't know, I just do. It's not her, I'm sure of it, but…"

The big one took over. "It's a telepathy thing, Kat. Zerg are all instinctive telepaths and you and I are no different. Telepathy is more than just words, it's…God, it's like explaining colors to a blind man…Look, I'll put it this way: Her majesty, the woman that your commander left with, looks, feels, and acts nothing like the Queen of Blades does. Knowing that, can you still say she's the same person?"

"I suppose…" Kat conceded. "I just wonder what it's like, having…well…jumped species, in a manner of speaking. Do you miss your old life, at all?"

The smaller Zerg suddenly looked very sad. "You know, now that you mention it, kind off. I do miss it." The larger one turned to her with a strange look in his eye. Was that…caring? "It's been…a long time since I saw my family. Mom and dad still living in Mar Sara City, a brother somewhere on Korhal. They must think that I'm dead. Maybe it's for the best that they do…"

"Is it?" Tai suddenly asked.

"Well, I miss them, sure. Hell, I'd kill to see even my asshole brother again. I haven't seen him in years, but still…Is it even right, to come back looking like this? I mean, they're probably going to shoot me on sight."

"It's worth a shot…no pun intended."

"Really? Optimism coming from Tiberias Cain? Who are you and what have you done with my friend?"

"Lilith, I don't have anyone left and look where it got me. Trust me, you don't want to turn into me. Your family is still around. You still have a shot at something resembling a normal life. When this war is over, I'm sure her majesty will grant you leave to reconnect, if you want to."

"I don't know…"

Tai leaned over to Lilith and put his arm around her. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll come with you. If nothing else, I've thicker carapace."

"You're going to eat those words. Right after you've eaten some of my dad's bullets."

"Probably. But I think it's worth the effort."

Kat couldn't help but feel a little moved by the two 'aliens' finding comfort in each other. It was…strange, to see them act so human. Part of her wondered if this was a fancy piece of theatrics to sucker her in, but it just seemed too genuine. No one could act _that_ well. "You know, for what it's worth, Lilith, I think it's a good idea. Your family will probably be scared to death, but in the long run, you'll all be better off. Though I would call in advance and tell them what happened…"

"See, the doctor thinks I'm right too. It must be a good idea. Assuming the new political situation doesn't see us all exiled to the other end of the galaxy…"

"Oh, there you are, Tai." Lilith said with a smirk. "I couldn't see you under all that optimism."

"At any rate, Kat, why do you care about us? What's your stake in this?"

"I don't really have a stake. I'm just someone curious about meeting new cultures, that's all." They seemed so approachable. So unlike the Zerg she'd always known. If this wasn't rock-solid evidence that the Zerg had changed, she didn't know what was.

Tai looked at her, thoughtfully. "You know, you might be the first human I've met in three years who hasn't plotted my murder. I think we can trust her enough, can't we?"

"Told ya boss allying with the humans wasn't a bad idea." Lilith replied. "So, what do you want to know about the creepy insect people?"

_A/N While writing this story, I've often wondered whether or not the Zerg are evil, or to what degree. Along the way, I think I've figured out some sort of answer and I'd like to share it with the rest of the world. Since it's only tangentially related to the story as a whole and you don't need to read any of it to enjoy the rest of the story, allow me to put up this disclaimer:_

_**WARNING: QUASI-PHILOSOPHICAL JAMMERING AHEAD. MAY CONTAIN NONSENSE. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRESSION. THIS IS ONLY THE OPINION OF SOME IDIOT WITH TOO MUCH FREE TIME. DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE PRONE TO OVERREACTING TO OPINIONS CLASHING WITH YOUR OWN. THIS IS NOT INTENDED AS FLAME BAIT. IF YOU FEEL THE URGE TO TYPE IN CAPITAL LETERS, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM RESPONDING, OR COUNT TO TEN BEFORE YOU DO.**_

_Good, now that that is out of the way: Are Zerg evil? My first thought, and yours doubtlessly, is a unanimous 'yes'. Zerg kill, torture, steal, and transform other people into monsters. How could they be anything but evil incarnate? However, before we make a judgment, let's discuss what evil is in the first place._

_The Oxford English Dictionary defines evil as 'profoundly immoral and wicked'. This leads us to a problem: the words 'profound', 'immoral', and 'wicked' aren't absolute terms. They vary from society to society, from time period to time period, from individual to individual, but also from situation to situation. Don't believe me? Let's take a look at an act that most of you will consider evil: killing another human being. Killing is usually considered wrong. However, soldiers have probably killed more people in the many wars that have raged over the millennia than all the serial killers put together. Still, we do not vilify them. On the contrary: we put medals on their chests, praise them as heroes, and get Hollywood to make blockbuster movies out of their experiences. Apparently, there are situations where killing is considered 'right', or at the very least not 'wrong'. Of course, imagine belonging to the faction that the conquering heroes defeated. How would they look on the same soldiers we adore?_

_The root problem is that our definition of evil is directly linked to our notions of morality, and morality is little more than someone's opinion on what a person should or shouldn't do. So really, what is evil, as an absolute term? Is there a definition of evil that is absolute (in other words: the same for everyone, everywhere)? The best answer I have been able to come up with is the following: hypocrisy. The act of holding others to a certain standard that you yourself do not subscribe to. I.e. a thief who condemns stealing, or a murderer who claims killing is wrong. It is a nice, generic term because it judges people by the way they would want to be treated. In other words, someone is evil if they violate the Golden Rule._

_So how does this apply to the Zerg? Well, let's look at infestation (in my opinion, the most horrific crime the Swarm commits). An innocent lifeform is transformed and enslaved against its will. That's evil, right? Surely no one would want that to happen to them, right? Imagine being a Zerg? Imagine that you are convinced your species are superior to all others, that you are a complete Social Darwinist, and cannot, for the life of you, understand why the needs of the few would ever outweigh the needs of the many. To them, being infested means going from a lesser state (i.e. a human) to a better one. We say they rob us of our free will, they say that they give us purpose. We say that they turn us into monsters, they say that they're improving our fragile little bodies, granting us an enhanced physique, long life, and dozens of other improvements. From a Zerg's perspective, a human resisting infestation is like a child not wanting to go to school. They see it as a necessary part of our development and integration into a greater society (read: Zerg Swarm). _

_In short: from our perspective, Zerg are evil. From their perspective, they are not. The unsatisfying answer to the question 'are Zerg evil?' is: Depends on who you're asking._

_In my opinion: when compared to actual villains (like Arcturus Mengsk), the Zerg aren't really evil because they are true to their own, if alien philosophy. Doesn't mean I'd want to meet any of them in a dark alley, though. They're hyper-pragmatic, ultra-collectivist Social Darwinists. In other words: they're just arrogant, narrow-minded jerks, just like almost everyone else in the SC universe._


	94. Chapter 94

**Bridge, Hyperion, Marrakesh**

Raynor has made plenty of alliances with untrustworthy people in the past. An occupational hazard for someone in his line of work. He has also been betrayed several times. Never in his life, however, has he been forced to trust someone _after_ they've betrayed him. Sarah being an exception, when you think about it. She has an excuse, though. Valerian didn't.

The prince looked like he had aged ten years since he last saw him. Then again, he had been very busy, or so Raynor had been told. He better be, a darker part of his mind reminded him. He imprisoned the Raiders after they'd outlived their usefulness and tried to have Sarah brought before a trial. No, it would take a lot more before he could be trusted again, even if Warfield and Matt trusted him enough to occupy the same room.

Valerian immediately stood up a little straighter. The boy seemed a little awkward, for obvious reasons. After all, it's not every day that you have to explain yourself to someone you stabbed in the back. Then again, it could also have something to do with the massive Protoss that was looking at him curiously.

"Before we go on, I want to know one thing:" Raynor commanded, focusing all the attention on himself. "Why? Why lock us up when we helped you? Why lock Sarah up when I've said, again and again, that we need her alive?!"

The prince took a deep breath before answering. "Because it was the only course of action that I could have taken at the time. Tell me, commander, what were you planning to do after my father had been dealt with?"

"Well, fix the sector he's screwed over for years, of course!"

"And how were you going to do that? Do you have contacts in the corporate world, or connections with anyone in the military outside of present company? Do you have any idea how to rule a leaderless interstellar nation? Don't bother answering. I think we all know the answer already. We both know what would have happened once you returned from Char victoriously: you would have gone straight for my father's throat, no matter the costs. Now, as much as I want him gone, I couldn't let you dispose of him like this. Your actions would have created a power-vacuum, one that will either lead to another emperor to take my father's place or to complete anarchy. Either way, there would be no freedom for the masses. If history has taught me anything, it's that freedom is worthless if people's children are starving or if the established order goes through a melt-down."

Kid had a point, as much as he hated to admit it. Revenge had been all that was on his mind lately. Picking up the pieces was a task he'd delegated to Matt. "So how does locking me up prevent that?"

"I'm not going to lie to you: you had become a liability to the stability of the sector. After Char, I knew that in order for the Dominion to survive, you had to disappear for a while. You would never have stayed quiet while I exploited the cracks you've created in my father's powerbase. Especially considering what I had in mind…"

"So what did you have in mind? What could be so terrible that you had to go this far to keep me from messing it up?"

Valerian lowered his head, clearly having trouble admitting his long-term plans. "My intention was to return to Korhal with the former Queen of Blades in tow." He pointed to Kerrigan standing next to him. Raynor felt her tense up immediately. To her credit, however, she didn't lash out. In fact, she was taking this a hell of a lot better than he was. "If I became the conquering hero who brought low the greatest evil humanity had ever faced, then my father would have become irrelevant. Especially once the people see a broken, fragile young woman sitting in the witness stand, telling us exactly how she came into the Swarm's possession in the first place. Combine that with your broadcast, and my father will have lost whatever legitimacy he has left. The people would hate him and the military would rather fight for someone who actually solved the Zerg problem, rather than the tyrant that caused it to grow out of control. With his reputation utterly destroyed and his supporters abandoning him by the million, he'd have no choice but to abdicate and run. I could have stepped in and hold free elections. I could have created a durable, lasting peace for everyone, everywhere."

"Except for Sarah, who'd be executed, no matter what anyone says in her defense." Raynor reminded the boy, angrily. "Or me and my boys, who'd still be in jail…"

"You would never have gone along with me. I know full well that there's no force in the universe that could have convinced you to give up on miss Kerrigan after all this. The Dominion has quite extensive biographies on the both of you for those with the necessary clearance and I admit that you, more than anyone, deserve some measure of happiness after everything you've been through. Believe me, I took no pleasure in turning on you. However, if the price of a stable, just government is a broken heart, a woman's life, and the self-respect of a tyrant's son, then that's a bargain price to me."

"And what about the rest of the sector. What was going to happen when the hybrids take over a headless Swarm and wipe everyone out!"

"Commander, I didn't know the full extent of the threat they represented. As far as I knew, they were nothing more than one of many crack-pot experiments of the Moebius Foundation. I didn't know what they are capable of. How could I? The only evidence I had was the word of a man who had plenty of ulterior motives. Don't take this the wrong way, but that's not good enough. If your Protoss friend had come to me as well…"

"Would you have believed me, Valerian Mengsk?" Zeratul asked, coolly. "Matters of prophecy are rarely taken seriously by most of your kind."

"Most of my kind do not have extensive backgrounds in archeology and the Xel'Naga,…Zeratul, I presume? Your Ihan crystal was very convincing. It came into my possession when I took the Hyperion and I took the liberty of using it. Suffice to say that, as a scientist, I'm not too proud to admit when new information proves me wrong. I'm aware of my mistakes and I'm trying to fix them the best I can."

Raynor scoffed. "So we're all supposed to kiss and make up? Forget that all this has happened?"

"I don't expect that you'll ever trust me again. I wouldn't even be surprised if you'd put a bullet in my head when this is over. However, our mutual hatred is irrelevant when faced with a foe that can destroy us all. I'm not asking for your trust, I'm asking for your cooperation. Not for my sake, but for our people's. Believe me, we have far bigger things to worry about than each other."

"It's alright, Jim." Sarah said, softly. "He's not lying. I can tell."

"He tried to kill you, darlin'. Would have succeeded too, if it weren't for the Zerg busting you out."

"Yes, he did. He had lousy intel and made a bad call. That's what happens to people in charge. It's not like you've never been wrong and that you wouldn't betray someone if you thought it was necessary."

"Not like this…" Raynor would never have done something like this. At least, that's what he was telling himself.

"Higher stakes doesn't change the fact that we're all mortal and all make mistakes. You'll need someone to help pick up the pieces when the dust clears. Give him a chance."

Sarah wasn't trying lie to him or sugarcone what the prince had done. Logically, he knew that she was right. He knew from first-hand experience that leadership isn't easy and that any mistake you make can cost lives. It wasn't like he was a saint either. If Valerian had done the same thing to someone else, he might even feel sorry for the young prince. The boy had taken a burden onto his shoulders that he couldn't possibly carry and was paying for it dearly. "Alright, Junior, you'll get your second chance." Raynor pulled out his sidearm and put it down on the table. "You won't get a third, though. If you turn out to be anything like your father, I swear to God that there'll be a bullet waiting for you."

"If I turn out to be anything like my father, you'll have my blessing to shoot me." Was the Prince's curt reply.

An uncomfortable silence followed, until Zeratul spoke up. "If we are finished accusing each other of treachery, I would prefer that we continue with the matter at hand. I have revisited my ancestral homeworld and found that our situation is far more dire than I anticipated. The broods that once infested it have disappeared, and I believe they are headed towards the throne world of the Dominion."

"They might already be there…" Valerian muttered, an expression of fear forming on his face. "The reason I called this meeting in the first place was because someone has destroyed the Dylarian shipyards. A force apparently composed of Terran, Zerg, and Protoss elements. I think it's obvious who the culprit is."

"How bad?" Warfield asked.

"The shipyards themselves are a total loss. As for the fleet stationed there…my people are still sifting through the wreckage but they only found a handful of ships left intact. In other words, if our enemy wants to attack Korhal, the planet would be all but defenseless."

The general laughed. "Kid, Korhal's far from defenseless. Even without the fleet, the garrison force is massive, and the entire infrastructure is built around a series of fortress cities built from the strongest plascrete money can buy. Trust me, I once led life-fire wargames on the rooftops of skyscrapers. It'll be weeks, if not months of trench warfare before the planet falls. Assuming it does at all. Believe me, no sane opponent would attack Korhal directly."

"Not to open any old wounds," Horner said, hesitantly. "but all it took to get the Odin and a few hundred men planetside was a couple of favors and some bribes. Not to mention that our enemy probably isn't stupid, if they're capable of engineering of entire species. If there is a way to invade Korhal, they'll figure it out. Your planet isn't invincible."

"I know it isn't," Warfield admitted. "but by the time the planet is in any danger of falling, we'll show up and save the day. Isn't that why we're trying to work together in the first place? Besides, we're technically still fugitives. I don't want our fleet to show up early and be mistaken for the invaders. Our best bet is to stay put until a general distress call comes in."

"General, what would happen if we can't stop Korhal from falling?" Raynor asked, tentatively. If the general had a flaw, from his point of view, it would be overconfidence. A leader always had to put some measure of trust in his men, but Warfield had an unshakable belief that 'his' Dominion military would stand no matter what the universe threw at him. Jim had hoped that he'd given up that delusion after ordering a frontal attack on Char that nearly turned into a rout. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.

"It won't fall in…"

"Humor me."

Warfield sighed. "Well, if it did, I suppose humanity would be in big trouble. The emperor, being the paranoid fool that he is, has centralized most of the government. On paper, this is supposed to increase efficiency and promote unity. In reality, he's doing it to keep an eye on everyone. If Korhal were to fall before we're able to save it, then, hypothetically, the Dominion would be leaderless, at least on an interplanetary level. Yes, I know it sounds bad, but the possibility…"

Zeratul raised his hand, silencing the general. "My people once believed themselves to be the masters of the universe. That our military was without peer and Aiur an unassailable bastion. We were wrong, and the cost of our hubris was our homeworld, our culture, and two-thirds of our entire species. You stand to lose far more. All creation is at stake, and we cannot afford to do nothing. I ask you to prepare your people for an imminent invasion. It will come, of that there is no doubt. Korhal may already be under siege as we speak. The distress signal may not reach you until it is too late, or it might not reach you at all."

Raynor nodded in approval. "I agree with Zeratul over here. We should get this show on the road, warn anyone who will listen that we're about to get hit, hard."

"What about me and the Zerg, Jim?" Kerrigan asked.

"In your case…I'd stay put for now. Warfield is right to worry about being mistaken for the bad guys. We don't want our own troops shooting at you."

"Fair enough. Just one more thing, though: Arcturus."

The emperor. Whatever would happen to the emperor… "The advantage of my father's centralization efforts" Valerian said. "is that we could easily take over the Dominion if we can capture the palace intact. If we save Korhal from a massive alien invasion, we'll have the opportunity and the public support to make it happen. My father will…no longer be necessary after that." Raynor could see the prince swallow hard.

"You know what I'll do to him, right? If he tries to run away, I don't think I can stop myself from hunting him down."

"I know, miss Kerrigan, and I won't stop you if that's what you want."

"That's…cold, junior." Raynor said, shocked (and more than a little frightened) that Valerian would be able sign his father's death warrant, even if it was so reluctantly. "I don't exactly have much sympathy for him, but he's still your old man…"

"Arcturus Mengsk is my father, yes, but he is also a tyrant, a criminal, and a megalomaniac. His death is a certainty: either we execute him in a court of law, or he dies before we can capture him. While I do not and cannot condone murder, I understand when a situation may force my hand. If the price of miss Kerrigan's cooperation is his head, then so be it."

"I see…very well then. I suggest we get moving. Can't shake the feeling that we're all running out of time. Zeratul, I'd like to talk to you in private, if you didn't mind."

As the others went back to their respective ships, Raynor couldn't help but feel a sense of dread running down his spine. First was Valerian, who had turned out to be far more cynical and calculating than he expected. Not that surprising, since he was expecting a hedonistic fool, but still. Valerian certainly inherited a good chunk of his father's magnificent brain. However, did he also get some of Arcturus' less admirable qualities? Worse was that the prince's logic made sense, to a degree. Maybe Raynor should have been more forthcoming about what was on the crystal. Maybe he should have handed it over, once he was done using it. It would have made this whole mess much easier. Or it wouldn't. The universe is funny like that.

Then, there was Sarah, who seemed more troubled every time he met her. Raynor tried very hard not to think about the image of her naked, but it was hard not to when she started to act in ways so reminiscent of _her_. The anger, the thirst for revenge…she had hidden it quite well, to her credit, but Raynor knew her too well not to notice the signs. He took some consolation in the fact that she was willing to accept her archenemy' son as an ally, even while he tried to explain away her own attempted murder. Still, she was strange. Always was, but it seemed to get worse as time went on. Right now, even Raynor couldn't know for sure what she would do next, and that scared him more than anything.

**Throne Room, Imperial Palace, Korhal**

There was a panic everywhere. The capital of the Dominion was under attack and its people were trapped. Enemy warships clashed with what was left of the orbital defenses while legions of Zerg roamed the cities, killing and infesting everything in their path. However, for Arcturus Mengsk, that wasn't the worst of it.

The great weapon that he had been promised turned out to be another trick. The hybrids that were supposed to be the solution to all his problems turned out to be nothing more than home-grown infiltrators. Apparently, the creatures had escaped containment en masse and were now rampaging across the planet. To make matters worse, these hybrids seemed to be leading the other invaders somehow, if intelligence was to be believed. Duran had betrayed him. Mengsk had entrusted another to help him deal with an imminent threat to his empire, and it bit him in the ass again. For that alone, he would have that man hung by his entrails and paraded through the streets.

In spite of all this, however, the emperor felt strangely at peace. In many ways, this invasion could end up saving his empire if he played his cards right. Once Korhal was retaken and the invaders crushed, no one would ever doubt the necessity of his sovereignty again. No one would be left wondering if Arcturus Mengsk could truly keep them safe. After all, history is written by the victors, and his victory was assured.

Korhal itself was a fortress within a fortress. The streets could easily be repurposed into killing fields. The vital structures were shielded from bombardment, both from orbit and from the surface. The planet had no real oceans, tectonic fault lines, or other hazards that could be exploited by a cunning invader. No, this world, _his _world, would not fall. The enemy would crash against the defenses like a wave against the shore, and then recede. Arcturus Mengsk has always won in the end.

The only blemish on this otherwise spotless victory in the making was that Kerrigan herself could not be found. It was strange that she wasn't leading this invasion in person. It had to be her doing, after all. Who else could have amassed an army like that? No matter. There'd be a reckoning for that treacherous bitch once this was all over.


	95. Chapter 95

**Armory, Hyperion, Marrakesh**

It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Obviously, whoever said that assumed that all enemies capable of threatening mankind were reasonable people. In Raynor's experience, words won't scare away a monster. They are useless against an unthinking, unfeeling force of evil that only wants to destroy you and everything you care about, simply because it thinks of you as an insect. Sometimes, the sword was the only thing that could hold the monsters at bay, and swords was something he desperately needed.

He hated asking for help, especially from someone who had done so much, only to have the universe throw it all back into his face. Yet, Raynor knew he didn't have a choice. He took the prelate to the side of the armory. There was an empty storage room there that would give them some sense of privacy, or at least as much as one could get on a space ship.

"Zeratul, I appreciate your help thus far, but…"

"You need more." The Protoss said, sullenly.

"More troops, more ships, more supplies, anything. Sure, there's an army out there ready to fight the good fight, but I don't think it's gonna be enough. The Queen of Blades had a lot more power at her disposal than Sarah has now, and even she was certain that she'd lose when the Fallen One would attack in full force. I need more men. I need the Protoss fleets."

The old Protoss lowered his head. "I do not know if I can provide what you need. The Hierarchy is splintering as we speak and the mightiest of our fleets has already fallen under the enemy's sway."

"You mean the fleet Sarah had to fight at Dead Man's Rock?"

"Correct. They belong to the Auriga tribe, the greatest shipmasters the firstborn have at their disposal, and are led by a being that goes by the name 'Karass'."

Raynor had heard that name before. "Wait, isn't he…"

"Dead? Yes, he is. At the helm of that fleet, there is an imposter. One powerful enough to fool the high admiral himself and corrupt hundreds of warriors. The rest of our great fleets will not come to your assistance soon enough. Our leaders are more concerned with their own selfish desires to serve the greater good, and now that my homeworld is free from the Swarm at last…"

"…They'll care more about retaking their old home than saving a bunch of stupid monkey-men because everyone will be too busy partying to wonder where all the Zerg went." Crazy, stupid politics. Raynor hated it with a passion. Only a politician could be blind enough to get distracted in the face of Armageddon.

"That…would be a crude, but not inaccurate way of describing the situation. Even if I could unite them, they'd rather fight the Zerg queen herself, regardless of the color of her hide."

The commander sighed. "In other words, help ain't coming. Or at least not fast enough. This is bad, Zeratul. I honestly don't know if we can fight them alone."

"You fear that you ride to war, but not to victory."

"Exactly. I can't just wave a magic sword and call on the dead to fight for me. We need your help. Look, you're a damn hero to your people, even if you don't believe it yourself. Go to them. Yell at them. Do something, anything, to get your people to join the fight. If Korhal falls, your days are numbered too."

Zeratul look at his human friend, sensing the desperation in his words. Raynor was right, of course. This was their fight too, even if the rest of the Protoss race couldn't see it. He knew enough about this new Kerrigan to know that she would never abandon the commander. If Korhal fell, it would probably be over her dead body, and if the Zerg lost their queen, there would be no one to prevent to Swarm from falling into the enemy's hands. "Very well, James Raynor. I will do what I can. However, convincing the tribes will take time, if it is possible at all."

"Some chance is better than none, I suppose. We'll hold out for as long as we can, old buddy. With the Zerg on our side, I think we can afford a meatgrinder and buy you the time you need."

Leaving the room with his spirit raised a little higher, Raynor noticed Kerrigan arguing with a rather agitated Swan and oh god why is there a giant overlord in the armory?!

"Zeratul!" Sarah called, ignoring the stout and angry engineer yelling something about a mop. "Can your ship carry about a dozen people to Shakuras?"

"Yes, I believe I have enough space." The Protoss answered, confused. "Why does it matter?"

Suddenly, the overlord seemed to open up and several figures were disgorged from its bowels. One of them quickly got back in its feet and approached Kerrigan, angrily. "YOU! KERRIGAN! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"

Kerrigan, completely unfazed by the other's outburst, calmly said: "Well, Zeratul, meet Lassara. Lassara, meet Zeratul. He's going to take you home."

Lassara looked around, utterly flabbergasted. "No. No no no, this is a trick. Some flea-brained attempt to get into my head. This cannot possibly be the mighty Zeratul himself. For what you have done to him, he would never tolerate your presence."

"Circumstances dictate that I must." Zeratul said. "I assure you, I am no phantom of your mind. Whatever deception Kerrigan has subjected you to, I am not one of them."

While Zeratul was trying to convince his fellow Protoss that he was, in fact, real, Raynor turned to the Zerg queen, asking: "Care to explain?"

"Protoss research expedition I encountered. They knew too much to just let them go and I didn't want to kill them, so I took them with me."

"I see. Is she always this angry?"

"She used to be worse. I think she's warming up to me…Or at least she was until I had her herded into an overlord and dumped her and her buddies on the floor."

A Protoss, covered in Zerg goo, held prisoner by the Zerg, now arguing with Zeratul about whether or not the latter is real…Raynor could feel the beginning of a headache forming in the back of his mind. "Well, I guess I've finally seen it all. Oh, and Sarah, didn't I say something about 'potty-trained'?"

"Yeah, sorry about that." She added, guiltily. "I didn't know Zeratul was going to be here. When he showed up, I had the whole lot tossed into the nearest space-worthy transport I had."

"Which was an overlord."

"Unfortunately, yes. I had to get them here before Zeratul left. They deserve better than to rot in a Zerg hive. Sorry about the mess, by the way." At least Kerrigan had the decency to apologize. Wouldn't change Swan's mood, however.

"Don't sweat it. Next time you're inviting one of your pets into my ship, though, warn me. My heart would appreciate it."

"It's just an overlord. They don't bite. Even their goo is harmless."

"They still scare the piss out of me. What are the men going to say if they see me walking around with stained trousers?"

"So _that's_ why you always wear brown pants…" She said, cheekily.

After Lassara finally managed to calm down, she managed to look Kerrigan in the eye and said: "I understand. I apologize."

"Given what I've put you through the last few weeks, I think we're even."

"Then…you are letting us go? No threats, no demands…"

"Just one." The queen said. "When you get back, your people are going to ask questions. Probably things about me or what defenses I have around here. I want you to tell them the truth."

"The truth…I have seen your defenses, know where you are…you realize that I will almost certainly be asked to assist in your destruction."

"I know, and I don't care. We're about to go to war, Lassara. If something happens to me, you don't want to be anywhere near a Zerg hive and civilians don't have any business being around a potential battlefield."

"Then it truly was an act of kindness…The Queen of Blades would never have done such a thing."

"I'm not the Queen of Blades anymore."

"Indeed, you are not…For what it is worth, I thank you, Kerrigan. You were far more merciful to me than my kind would have been to you, were our roles reversed."

Kerrigan's face suddenly grew a little brighter. Zeratul simply looked on, unsure what to think of her or the hitchhikers. It was common knowledge that Protoss couldn't be infested, but they could still be corrupted or brain-washed by a sufficiently powerful psychic. Bringing them to Shakuras might be a mistake. Then again, there was no obvious sign of deception. It would be better to take a leap of faith. This time. "If there is nothing else, I suggest we board our ship and leave. There is much to do, and little time. There is a shuttle waiting for us in the hangar bay."

Raynor frowned. "There's a cloaked spaceship in my hangar and nobody noticed…I'm going to shoot my security chief."

With Zeratul and the other Protoss gone for now, Raynor and Kerrigan found themselves reluctantly having to say goodbye. "Guess I have to go now. See if my Zerg haven't eaten each other yet…"

"Wish you could stay. Bad things seem to happen when we're apart." Tarsonis, Char, Dead Man's Rock…Raynor would never call himself a mathematician, but he knew enough about statistics to know that he had every right to be worried.

"I know, but I'm needed there and your people still don't really trust me, so…"

"Yeah…"

After a moment of silence, Kerrigan said: "I should get going before this turns into a romantic comedy…"

"If that's the case, stay. The boy always gets the girl in one of those." Raynor chuckled. "Still, you're right. I think my 'tough guy' reputation has suffered enough already. I mean, the knight in shining armor is supposed to rescue the damsel, not the other way around."

"You're such a pig."

"And you wouldn't have me any other way."

Kerrigan kissed him on the cheek before disappearing in the leviathan's maw along with her 'bodyguards'. The ship shook a little as the hulking beast 'undocked', or rather, pulled its colossal head out of the airlock with the overlord following close behind. Raynor couldn't help but notice that he actually felt sorrow for seeing the Zerg leave. What a lovely turn his life had taken.

"Great. Just great." Swan said. "Look at my nice, clean armory. Zerg crap everywhere. You got any idea how long it will take me to get all of this mess cleaned up, cowboy?"

"I'll ask Sarah to potty-train them next time I see her." Raynor replied, trying very hard not to laugh at the mental image of an overlord in diapers.

"Cute. Just tell her not to bring that damn blimp from hell. You know I hate bugs, especially those that take a giant dump all over my equipment. That stuff don't grow on trees, you know!"

"I know, I paid for it."

"Well, you can buy new ones. No one's gonna drive a buggy when there's Zerg goo stuck under the dashboard. Never know what'll end up hatching there." Ah, Swan and his precious equipment.

"You know it's just lubricant, right? Or fluid that acts as a vacuum-seal? Just suck it out. The Zerg aren't here to attack us."

"No, they're just here to show off their giant guns."

"Excuse me?" The commander asked. Kerrigan mentioned the defense guns that were supposed to be keeping the planet save, but not that she wanted to show them off…

"Oh, c'mon, didn't the captain show you? The giant critter that looks like someone decided to glue cannons to a city-sized sperm whale? Or the fact that the entire planet is covered in guns, each of which powerful enough to bisect this old hunk'o'metal in a single shot? Believe me, royalty can't be trusted. Just look at Prince Charming."

"She gave us the location of her base of operations. That's a big show of trust, Swan." Raynor couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. She just saved him and many of his Raiders. Again. Surely she'd earned the benefit of the doubt by now.

"It ain't when we can't touch it anyway. I mean, think about it. Guns are bad, Zerg are bad. Zerg _with_ guns? That's a whole new kind of trouble I don't want nothing to do with. What's next? Zerglings with psiblades? Teleporting ultralisks? Zerg're just showing that they're learning from their mistakes, and I don't like it. If they turn on us again, how're we gonna stop them when they can nail all our ships from halfway across the system?"

"Zerg are on our side this time. If Sarah wanted us dead, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation. Trust me, I got her under control."

"Yeah, but for how long, cowboy? What if you die heroically to save some orphan children like the big, damn, stupid hero you are? Or if you ain't what she's looking for when she sits down and lets the adrenaline wears off?"

"She won't turn on us this time."

"Oh, right, 'true love' and all that." The engineer said sarcastically. "I almost forgot that I've been transported into a crappy novel written by some amateur loser that still lives with his mom."

"Swan…" The commander's patience was slowly running out.

"Look, I get it. I've been briefed on what's coming. We need her. God knows we do. Thing is, though, we don't need her forever, and vise-versa. You better start thinking about what happens next, or we're gonna end up in prison again or worse. Now, normally I wouldn't care who you're sharing your bed with, but if your love-life could get us all killed, it becomes everyone's problem. I know she's pretty, if your into tentacles and that sort of thing, but don't let her good looks fool you. It bit us in the ass before and her teeth are a helluva lot sharper this time 'round." Swan was genuinely afraid of her. Raynor would be angry with him if it weren't so well founded.

"I'm a big boy, you know. I can take care of myself."

"Just making sure, here. I worry about you. Friends don't let friends do stupid things. Don't ever forget that she ain't human anymore, cowboy. Her definition of sweet, sweet love mightn't be what you'd expect. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to find myself a flame-thrower. This damn mess ain't gonna clean itself."

Raynor stared blankly ahead as he processed his most recent conversation. He briefly noticed one of the engineers putting on a firebat suit. The commander thought that he should probably say something about it, but couldn't really find the words.

Not human. No, she wasn't. Whatever illusion he once had of that was shattered yet again when he saw the changes in her body. He tried convincing himself that she was close enough, but still… After all he had been through, all he had to show for it was 'close enough'. Sometimes, the universe could be a cruel place.


	96. Chapter 96

**Bridge, White Star, Edge of the Korhal System**

"Just like the last time, general. Nothing but static on the long range frequencies."

"Well, I guess we now know why no one's sent a distress call yet… Keep looking, lieutenant. We need all the intel we can get."

General Morrigan was not happy with the sight before him. Not happy at all. At his back was all that he could recover from the Dylarian Shipyards: three battlecruisers held together by nothing but duct tape and prayers, a handful of transport craft, and a few understrength platoons of soldiers. A force that was barely enough to take out a pirate base, let alone stop one of the largest armadas he's ever seen. Worst of all, however, were the ships apparently belonging to Prince Valerian, who calmly stated that they wouldn't follow him without the prince's permission, in spite of the fact that the capital itself was under attack. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about those traitors yet. Humanity couldn't afford him to delay any longer. He would have to make do with what he had.

The system itself could only be described as a shit-storm. Ships from all makes, models, and species were engaged with what was left of Korhal's defense fleet, overwhelming them through sheer numbers, only to retreat again when the planetary defense grid launched another volley of missiles to thin their seemingly endless ranks. All four planets of the Korhal system were under siege, but the last planet, the capital itself, was taking the brunt of the damage. If the sensors and what's left of the comm. chatter were anything to go by, the Zerg were already setting up hives within the population centers while their allies launched surgical strikes against key Dominion outposts. The army fought valiantly, but Morrigan knew better than to have hope. With Zerg hives on the surface, defeat was only a matter of time. The Zerg could reinforce them numbers indefinitely, after all, and the humans would run out of manpower or ammo sooner or later.

"Never thought I'd see the day…" Williams said, astonished. "This place was supposed to be invincible. The missiles should have chewed up anything that tried to get close. How could they have cut through them so quickly?"

"Doesn't matter now. The only thing we can do now is try to kick them off the planet before there isn't a Korhal left to save." Morrigan looked at the tactical map, trying to find a way in. "This hive over here, just outside of Augustgrad. We're going to cut straight through it and march onto the palace from there."

"The palace can take care of itself for a while. We need to focus on…"

"The palace is the nerve center of the entire planet, captain." The general interrupted. "It contains most of the nuclear weapons and the targeting array for the defense grid. If it falls, we lose the planet. If we lose the planet…"

"…we lose the war, I get it." The captain conceded. "So what are we going to do?"

"First, you are going to fly right…here" Morrigan pointed towards a suburb near the palace. "and launch every shuttle and every drop pod we have. Get as many boots on the ground as we can. Then, you're going to perform hit and run attacks against the enemy. Try to thin their numbers as much as you can. Also, I want you to use that nice, big, _wasteful_ sensor array of ours to pinpoint any weaknesses and bring me as much intel as you can."

Williams nodded. "And you?"

"I'll be leading the ground assault personally." Before the captain could interrupt, he said: "I know that a man of my rank isn't supposed to do this, but we don't have a choice. Communications with the surface are intermittent at best and you won't be able to maintain that position for long. I can't lead the men if I can't talk to them. You have your orders, captain. Take us in."

In spite of the fact that he was about to jump feet first into the maw of hell, Morrigan felt oddly at peace. No more running, no more hiding. The Zerg were making their move. One way or another, the war would end here.

**Bridge, Bucephalus, Marrakesh**

Everyone in the ship seemed to let out a sigh of relief as the warp drives slowly began to charge up. Valerian was amongst them. It might have been a little hypocritical, considering that he was the one to drag them all here in the first place, but the prince didn't really care. Zerg were still Zerg, even if they were allies now. They would never stop giving him the creeps.

"Glad to get away from that bloody rock, sir." The ship's captain said.

"I admit, this planet will never be a tourist attraction." Valerian admitted.

"No kidding. You're supposed to come back from vacation with a suntan, not a suit of damn carapace. I still don't like them, you know. I won't shoot at them unless you tell me to, but they'll never be my friends."

"On that, captain, we agree." Valerian quietly enjoyed his coffee until he noticed the ship's resident ghost operative. "Ah, Nova. I was wondering where you disappeared to."

"Sorry about that, your highness. I thought it would be better to keep a low profile for the time being. Turns out, even though I was the only human in the whole rescue team, I'm the one person Raynor trusts the least. Funny how that works…"

"Jealous?"

"A little. Then again, I'm not his girlfriend. Even though I'm better looking. Guess the good commander has no sense of taste." She replied, jokingly. On a more serious note, Nova asked: "Can I speak with you for a moment? In private, if possible."

"Of course." Walking over to a quiet room behind the bridge, he continued: "I actually wanted to talk to you about Kerrigan. You're one of the few non-Zerg who've fought beside her recently, and I'd like to know what you think of our newest ally."

Nova looked…troubled. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted."

The ghost took a deep breath before saying: "If she were in my team in the academy, I'd have her crazy, obsessed ass thrown out of the program before the end of the week."

While Valerian had little doubt that the ghost wouldn't like Kerrigan, he didn't expect her to be this critical. "That's…rather harsh. You got the job done with no casualties among the Raiders. What did she do to deserve that kind of criticism?"

"I'm no psychologist, but I don't need a degree to see that she's completely unstable. You should have seen her; she mercilessly butchered her way through the ship, nearly got us both killed, and almost murdered me in a fit of all-consuming rage when I tried to calm her down."

The prince swallowed. "But she did calm down, didn't she? You did complete the mission, flawlessly if my might add."

"Yes, we did, but…"

"And if memory serves, you've done something similar yourself, haven't you?"

"Well, yes, but still…"

"Nova, I don't think you fully understand what Raynor means to that woman. The commander is…well…her last link to humanity, if I may be so dramatic. If you were in her place, what would you do to keep him safe?"

The ghost realized to her dismay that he was right. "Anything."

"Exactly. I can hardly blame her for being a little…unhinged. Given what she has been through, I think it's nothing short of a miracle that she hasn't lost her sanity completely by now. I know I certainly would have. Give her some space. We still need her and I firmly belief that Raynor can keep her in check."

"For now…It's just that…She got so focused in her little tunnel-vision episode that her adjutant had to deliver vital information to me via telepathy because she didn't…well…answer the phone, so to speak. If her own people couldn't get through to her when she zones out, how do you expect some human to do any better?"

Valerian sighed. Apparently Kerrigan's problems was a bit more serious than he had hoped. "As long as Raynor is around, I think everything will be fine. We'll just have to trust her on this one."

"I hope you're right. I really don't want to form a mental link with a Zerg again."

The scientist in him couldn't be helped but be a little interested at the implications of a human-Zerg telepathic link. Case studies are rare. Case studies where the human remains sane even more so. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

"Ever get that feeling that you're dirty and it won't go away no matter how hard you scrub?"

"I just traded my father's life for an alliance with the Zerg Swarm." Was Valerian's deadpan reply.

"Okay, I guess you do. That's basically where I'm at right now. Can't shake the feeling that the Zerg are still in my head. Pure paranoia, I know, the blood tests were clean, here and on the Hyperion, but still…"

Well, the Prince couldn't blame her for being frightened of the Zerg. Not when he was as scared as everyone else. "This isn't easy on any of us, Nova. Yes, the Zerg are unlikely allies, but we need them. Just bear with me. It'll all work out in the end."

If only Valerian was so sure of that as he made her believe.

**Drop Pod, Atmosphere over Korhal**

The pod shook as it tore through the atmosphere. On reflection, Morrigan realized that a general had no place being in a little metal box with no protection apart from a thin sheet of metal and some airbrakes. Nevertheless, extreme circumstances required extreme measures. Even as the White Star was approaching the drop point, the ship came under heavy fire. They were lucky to last long enough to fly all the shuttles out of the hangar before the vessel had to leave orbit again, only to have many of them taken out by a swarm of enemy fliers. His decision to take a drop pod had been vindicated: they moved too fast for the Zerg to catch.

With the ground getting closer and closer, the general activated the console that allowed him to make last-minute course corrections. The camera on the bottom of the pod showed something disquieting: Zerg, Zerg, and more Zerg on patrol through the streets. And a few Protoss. And other…things. At least Morrigan knew of a way to turn that to his advantage.

"Sir, you need to activate the air-brakes now!" One of the other soldiers in the pod yelled.

"A few more seconds, lieutenant. We'll land soft." The general calmly replied.

"Soft?! What's that supposed to…" Suddenly, the pod slammed into the ground with a sickening squish and a foul stench filled the air. "Did he really just…"

Without waiting for an answer, Morrigan kicked open the door and started shooting at the Zerglings surrounding the pod. Strangely enough, they seemed more interested in eating each other, than in the humans shooting at them. Wiping them out was simple.

"With all due respect, sir, but who in their right mind kills a Zerg by LANDING on top of them?"

"A drop pod can be a deadly weapon in its own right, if used correctly." The general calmly replied. "A better question would be: why did these rest of them turn feral?"

"Might have something to do with the weird looking thing we landed on, general. If only it hadn't been powderized, the eggheads could…"

"CONTACT!" One of the soldiers cried. A young girl ran towards them, screaming in terror and begging for help. On her tail were a pack of Zerglings, easily dispatched by Morrigan and his soldiers. The girl fell in the lieutenant's arms, madly babbling and clutching her side, while the soldier tried to calm her down.

"It's okay, ma'm, you're safe now. We're…" He was suddenly cut of when the general shot her in the head. "General, what the hell!"

Calmly, Morrigan walked to the corpse and tore of the lower part of her shirt, revealing a massive, pulsating tumor growing on the girl's body. "She's a civilian. Do you really think she'd be able to last this long unless the invaders wanted her to? I think it's safe to say that every civilian in the district is either dead or infested too. Get used to it. This war is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Now move it! We need to meet up with the others."

Reluctantly, the soldiers marched on towards the rest of the army. On the way, however, they found out that the their objective had already been put to the torch by a forward goliath group. According to the squad's leader, the hive was almost undefended. First they turn feral for no reason, and now this… It seemed strange, that the Zerg would suddenly grow so disorganized. It was only when the commander showed him images of a supposed new strain of Zerg that the general truly became concerned. While he was no expert on the matter, he knew exactly what this new strain was: Protoss/Zerg hybrids. But how was that even possible? Did the Queen of Blades finally find a way to breed them? If yes, why would she bother when she could have crushed Korhal's defenses just fine without them?

Pushing the thought to the side for now, Morrigan ordered his men to advance towards the Imperial Palace. Thankfully, the anti-ship defensive missiles of the palace complex were still active, so the enemy couldn't bomb the central hub of Dominion operations from orbit. Thus, they were forced to attack them from the surface. This was good. On the surface, the Dominion still stood a chance, at least for the time being.

Eventually, the men were able to slice their way through the Zerg attack force and link up with the palace's defenders. Greeting him was the leader of the force, a man in a firebat suit with gold trimming and the imperial seal emblazoned on his helmet. "General? I'm Major Ryan of the Imperial Guard. Your man told me you were in charge of the reinforcements." Imperial Guard. The emperor's personal enforcers. Feared by the populace for their iron discipline, skill in combat, and loose interpretation of the phrase 'collateral damage'. They were also hated by commanders for poaching all their best men. Selected from the elite of the Dominion military, they were given top-of-the-line equipment and training. No resocs allowed. Only people who served out of duty to the emperor were even considered. They were the best of the best, the last line of defense for mankind, or at least, that's how they saw themselves.

"Good to meet you, major. I'm here to take command and push back the aliens. Are you the highest ranking officer here?"

"Just the highest ranking officer left, sir. Heard you took out the hive that's been bugging us all morning. If we're lucky, it'll buy my men a good night's sleep." At least the major had something resembling humility. Hopefully he also had a working brain. If he did, he and the general would get along just fine.

"Well, good for you. Now, there's something I've been wondering since I got here." Morrigan sent him a picture of one of the hybrids his men had killed, hoping that the major would know something about it. "Any idea what these things are or where they come from?"

The major nodded. "Tech's say it's some kind of Protoss/Zerg hybrid, as far as we can tell. Tough bastards and a lot smarter than they look. They seem to be leading the whole invasion. As for their origin, well, scout told me he saw a whole bunch of them leaving some of the labs deep below the city."

Morrigan raised an eyebrow. "What kind of labs?"

"No idea, sir. Even I can't get don't have clearance for the files. All I know is that you need the emperor's permission to access them. Oh, and when they escaped, they went straight for the defense grid. That's why so many of the damn aliens got to the surface."

"Wait, are you telling me the emperor actually made those damn things?"

"Maybe. Guess if he did, the damn eggheads screwed up big time. Just an hour after the hybrids started attacking, the biggest fleet I've ever seen drops out of nowhere and, well, the rest is history. I don't even know how they managed to get Protoss, Zerg, and even a few humans working together. Like the universe decided we all desperately needed to die. All we need now is for Jim Raynor to come by riding a pale vulture bike to seal the deal. Let's just say that things stopped making sense a long time ago."

Contrary to the major, Morrigan had managed to put two and two together. Disorganized Zerg, Protoss and human allies, hybrid infiltration…there was only one possible explanation: Raynor had been right all along. This just wasn't the Queen of Blades' style. Someone else, someone not her, was trying to overthrow the Dominion. Someone who managed to fool the emperor into making those damned hybrids, only to let them lose against their creators.

"Trust me, major, there's a perfectly logical explanation, but that's for another time. How many troops have you got left?"

"Fifty guardsmen, a few hundred soldiers, and some heavy mechs, sir. There may be more trapped in the city, but we haven't been able to leave the perimeter yet. The bastards keep hitting us again and again and I can't leave the palace unguarded. Sometimes it's Zerg, sometimes Protoss, sometimes waves of infested civilians. We'll be fine as long as we stay near the palace, though. Plenty of ammo and enough stimpacks to keep us all going for weeks. Oh, by the way, the emperor wanted me to call him if any reinforcements managed to break through. We have a comm.-link in the command center. Follow me."

Major Ryan took him to a forward outpost. Like their armor, the Imperial Guard's command center was lavishly decorated. Morrigan couldn't help but wonder how much of this was just the emperor showing off his wealth. "There's an awful lot of gold around here…"

"Purely decorative, sir. Can't have the emperor protected by walking rust-buckets, now can we?"

"At least you're being honest."

"Don't like getting lied to, sir. Figure I might as well return the favor." An interesting fellow, Morrigan thought. He certainly didn't have the insufferable arrogance that often came with being the elite. "Alright, you're on."

"General Morrigan! Where the hell have you been!" The emperor said, angrily. "I assigned you an army to keep this…this mess from happening! What have you been doing? How could this have happened?! Where the hell is your fleet?!"

"Gone, most of it." The general answered, calmly. "It turns out to be very difficult to hunt down an enemy when your employer lies to you."

Mengsk glared at his subordinate while gritting his teeth. "Explain yourself!"

"The hybrids that are leading this whole mess; they're _your_ creations. You commissioned your little science project and then, suddenly, they escape en masse and, within minutes, form an semi-organized assault force that overwhelms our defenses _and_ summons and armada of all the races in the sector to go and pound this planet into dust. That's not a coincidence, your _highness_. From where I stand, you're either a world-class idiot being used as someone's patsy or sabotaging your own government. Either way, I have no reason to follow your orders anymore."

The emperor looked as if he was about to explode. "Because of your outstanding record, I will disregard your last statement. Matters of politics and statecraft are none of your concern. That a soldier cannot grasp the subtleties is understandable. You are to follow my orders and…"

"With respect, I don't think I have to." Morrigan interrupted, knowing full well that there was little in the universe that could piss off Arcturus Mengsk than that. "I warned you years ago that the Zerg were still a threat. You didn't listen and the Zerg tried to kill us all. I warned you that the Protoss couldn't be trusted as allies. You ally with them and they abandon us to the Zerg. I told you the hybrids were too dangerous to work on. You do it anyway and now they're having your people for dinner. Do you see a pattern here? Because I do! You are a politician. The only wars you're capable of fighting is against reasonable people. The hybrids, and whoever is controlling them, aren't reasonable. You can't fight them with words or fancy scheming. The only way to stop them is to blow their heads off with giant guns. This is a military matter. You're no longer relevant, so I suggest you stay nice and safe in that palace of yours and let ME do my damn job for once!"

"How dare you!" The emperor bellowed furiously. "I AM THE DOMINION!"

"No, you're just the man who _used_ to be calling the shots, and doing a terrible job of it. Or need I remind you that the only reason the Zerg problem is as bad as it is because _you_ created the Queen of Blades by feeding your second-in-command to the Zerg!" Before the emperor could respond, Morrigan shut down the connection. He realized that he had about a dozen weapons aimed at him. Calmly, he stated: "Gentlemen, my loyalty has never been to the emperor, or to the Dominion. My loyalty is to the human race, as it has been since the first day I signed up for the military. If you think that's reason enough to kill me, then go ahead. If the human race is stupid enough to follow Mengsk after all this, we're doomed anyway. If not, then I'm asking you to help me take back this planet."

The stand-off lasted several minutes. No one dared to be the first to lower their weapon, until the major finally gave the order. "Stand down, people." He turned to the general and looked him straight in the eye with his expressionless mask. "I'm not an idiot. I know that we're facing the greatest crisis mankind has ever seen and that the emperor isn't the best man for this job. Sometimes, to serve Mengsk, you have to defy him. If you screw this up, however, I will hunt you down personally…sir."

"If I screw this up, you won't have to…Major."


	97. Chapter 97

**Leviathan, Marrakesh**

"…so, mass drivers, infinite range. Never shoot a target when there's a planet behind it. Remember, Sir Isaac Newton…"

"…'is the deadliest son-of-a-bitch in space', yes, you have said this about eight times already. I do not know who this 'Sir Isaac Newton' is or why he is in any way relevant to our current predicament, but if you are referring to the laws of motion, the Swarm has been aware of those since before mankind mastered writing. I know the Behemoth's capabilities better than anyone, Tiberias Cain. Your concerns are understandable, but unnecessary."

Kerrigan watched this little discussion between Tiberias and Me'dea from the sidelines. It was good that her underlings had the presence of mind to start preparing for the inevitable conflict she'd soon throw them into. Knowing that they had a sense of initiative made her feel a lot better, given the fight ahead. Whatever state Korhal was in, she knew that fighting the hybrids on a densely populated planet would require finesse and restraint. The less micromanagement, the better. The capital world was full of civilians, which meant that her Zerg would have to be able to figure out what to attack and what not to by themselves. It was nice to know that at least some of them were smart enough to do it without her minding them like a fussy mom. That'd free up more mental space that she could use to focus on the things that really mattered, like taking the blade she had and shoving it down Mengsk's throat.

Speaking of the blade, it had grown a little dull. Not that surprising, given that she'd barely used it. In truth, it was too big for her. Kerrigan was great with knives, but a sword like this? A little too much for her to handle. She'd probably end up hurting herself if she tried using it in actual combat. Still, it was nice to have a sharp blade on hand, if only to make it easier to cut Arcturus' head off. Just like she did to his father…

Just like she did to his father…

"Just making sure, Me'dea. I don't think our 'friends' will be very pleased with me if my first mate accidentally blows up the planet we're trying to save…"

"First mate? Truly, you do not take your captaincy seriously?"

"Why not? 'Captain Cain' was got a nice ring to it. Like a dreaded pirate whose name is only spoken in whispers…"

"Or the mascot of a brand of breakfast cereal…" Lilith chimed in.

Cain shot her a glare of disapproval. "Really, Lilith?" It didn't have the desired effect.

"I can already imagine the slogan: 'Captain Cain's Crunchies. It's Zergalicious!' Trust me, this is gonna work. My father's a salesman, my mother a lawyer, and my brother works for the Dominion Ministry of Information. Manufacturing bullshit is in my blood." She said with a big grin on her face. Kerrigan unconsciously bit her lip. She shouldn't laugh at this. She was a professional, a soldier, and a queen. It would be very unbecoming to laugh at something this silly. No matter how funny she thought it was.

"Right, like anyone's going to by a box of cereal with a Zerg on it."

"Well, we can dress you up in a colorful pirate costume. Chop of your hand, replace it with a hook, get Grubby to breed you a tiny mutalisk to sit on your shoulders, hell, we can even get you a fancy hat with a giant plume. Seriously, this is gonna sell like crazy. We'll be rich, I tell you! Rich!"

Kerrigan doubled over laughing, regal stoicism and the stares be damned. God, she shouldn't be, but what can you do? It just felt so good. So human…

After regaining her composure, she said: "Sorry about that. Anyway, how is your ship coming along, 'Captain'?" It took considerable difficulty to push the image of Cain in a pirate costume out of her mind. In spite of her efforts, Kerrigan couldn't help snickering.

"Just fine, actually." Tiberias replied, trying his best to remain serious. "Behemoth is almost loaded up and ready for battle. We were just testing the communication equipment for when we need to coordinate with the humans. As far as I can tell, it seems to be working, even if Izsha still needs to work some of the kinks out of it."

"Working, yes, but inefficiently." Me'dea added, with a slight hint of disapproval in her voice. "I know that the Terrans are not fond of telepathy and that we do not wish to frighten them any more than we have to, but this painfully transparent attempt to alleviate their fears will be rendered moot when they look up into the sky and see a city-sized Zerg flier."

Cain shrugged. "Guess we'll just have to compromise. Maybe I can talk them down before they do anything too stupid…"

"Actually, Tai, I don't want you on that ship when the battle starts." Kerrigan interjected. "I think it's better to have you groundside. Same for you, Lilith."

"Why?" Cain asked, seemingly disappointed. "Is there something wrong with my flying?"

"Any Terran ships are going to be on our side when the shooting starts, and any battle we fight on Korhal itself is going to turn into a mess." The queen explained. "There'll be civilians everywhere, along with Dominion troops who didn't get the memo that we're the good guys, or can't tell us from the enemy. I need you down there more than I need you up here. They won't give a broodmother the time of day, but they might listen to you."

"Key word being: 'might'." Lilith added grimly.

"Well, there's a good chance we'll get shot if we try play nice with them. That's what the regeneration is for." Kerrigan guiltily admitted. "Look, I don't like putting my people in danger either, but we can't just burn a path through Augustgrad and hope the bad guys die along the way. We're not that Swarm anymore."

"And thank God for that…"

"You're assuming that there's anything left to save. I mean, if the hybrids have any sense, they'll use their pet Zerg to create a virus bomb to wipe out or convert most of the civilians. After all, that's kind of their whole point, isn't it? You can't destroy the universe without _actually destroying the universe_, now can you?" Cain raised a good point, unfortunate though it was.

Lilith shook her head. "Tiberias Cain, eternal ray of sunshine in the grim, dark universe that we live in…"

"I'm just saying…"

"If I may interrupt," Izsha said, suddenly. "I believe that Tiberias might be onto something. Mistress, do you remember any of your invasion plans for the Dominion, or those of Korhal itself?"

"You'll have to remind me. I don't remember all that much from before." Of which she was very thankful, Kerrigan wanted to add.

"The plans you shared with me called for attacks on multiple fronts, while allowing refugees infected with a variety of viruses to escape into enemy territory. Either the Dominion would let them in, where the infected can wreak havoc, or they'll be forced to open fire on defenseless civilians, thus demoralizing the defenders or turning the public against the military. I believe that there's a good chance the hybrids will try this as well on a smaller scale."

"That's…brutal."

"It would hardly be the greatest atrocity your predecessor has committed." The adjutant added, as if it was the most trivial thing in the world. "At any rate, it would have ensured that your forces never ran out of cannon fodder and would be devastating to enemy morale. The hybrids will probably consider this far too convenient not to use."

"I see…" Kerrigan couldn't help but feel a little nauseated. She remembered a few things about those viruses, but most importantly, she could remember the fear of those unlucky enough infected. She could practically feel the terror they felt when they started to lose control of their own bodies and transformed into monsters. Worst of all, however, was the knowledge that that virus was _her_ creation. "I'll talk to Abathur, see if he can do something about it. Carry on, people."

With that, she left for Abathur's lab. It was quiet there. Unusual, considering the colossal drama queen being held hostage there. To Kerrigan's surprise (and relief) the creature apparently had fallen asleep. It looked strangely peaceful in this state. Probably because it was dreaming of having her soul for breakfast…

"My queen."

"Abathur." Kerrigan replied softly, trying not to away Sleeping Ugly.

"There is no need to whisper. It will not awaken for another ten hours at least."

"Really? I didn't know these things needed to sleep." Zerg didn't need it, after all. If they didn't, the queen reasoned, why would the supposedly perfect hybrids?

"They do not. I have found that a Terran chemical named morphine can render them unconscious for a while. Before you ask: No, I cannot make a feasible weapon out of it."

The queen couldn't help but chuckle. "Afraid that it'll try to take control of you?"

"I know it will try, but the creature will not succeed." Abathur said, confidently. "Even without the inhibitors I implanted into its brain, it will have great difficulty taking control of a Zerg who already has a master. Especially if that master is as powerful as you are. I doubt the hybrids will be able to turn your own minions against you, especially if you are on the same planet."

"Well, that's a relief. Why sedate it, though?"

"Because I prefer to work in peace and that _thing_ is eroding my patience. But I assume you have a different reason for being here. You never visit my chamber for mere idle chatter. If you wanted to know if I have found your 'silver bullet' yet, I am afraid that I must disappoint you."

Kerrigan was disappointed, but not that surprised. Nothing in her life had ever been easy. Why would this be? "Actually, I wanted to ask about a virus you created and used on the Dominion a while back." She tried clarifying herself with images from her mind, while at the same time trying to hide her repulsion. Judging by Abathur's response, however, it wasn't working.

"I presume that you do not wish to recreate it."

"No. I was hoping you had a cure for it in case the hybrids decide to use it on our allies."

"A cure? My queen, that would be a waste of time. If the enemy is wise enough to use such a thing as a weapon, they would modify it to render any cure that the Terrans may have developed already useless. There is a reason that it did so much damage when I deployed it. A nearly undetectable virus let loose in refugee camps with little to no sanitation…it could not have spread any faster."

"So there's no hope for a cure, then? What are we supposed to do, kill everyone that gets infected and burn their bodies to keep it from spreading?" As much as the queen hated the idea of purging entire cities, or even an entire planet to stop a plague, what choice would she have if there was no other way?

"I did not say that a cure was impossible. Any virus can be stopped, given the right vaccine, and my creations are no different. We will not be able to reverse all the effects without killing the victim, but we could contain the damage…in theory. In practice, however, it is not that simple. I sincerely doubt that a self-evolving virus can ever be fully removed from one's body and any mutations that have already occurred will be permanent, just like yours are. Even the most favorable scenario would require the infected to be treated for the rest of their lives. That may be possible for a small colony, but for a population in the billions, it is simply infeasible. At best, we could save a city, or rather, the small part of it that is infected, but not showing any symptoms. A meaningless gesture in the grand scheme of things."

"Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help." Kerrigan suddenly realized that morality wasn't going to work. If Abathur had a sense of right and wrong, it was so utterly alien she wouldn't be able to understand it anyway. No, he had to be approached a different way. "I mean, if a couple of hybrid monsters are smart enough to use a lethal virus, surely the chief geneticist of the Zerg Swarm can out-science them and figure out a cure…"

Abathur scoffed, seemingly insulted. "An unfair contest is hardly a valid means to determine an individual's skill. Curing a virus is an infinitely more difficult task than creating one. Moreover, I see little shame in being beaten at creating a fool's weapon."

"A 'fool's weapon'? You know you already built one, right?"

"On your predecessor's behalf, not on my own." Abathur seemed genuinely angry. "My duty is to help the Swarm grow and evolve. My duty is to learn from my enemies. Why would I willingly create a weapon that wipes them out to the last? If the enemy deploys such a thing, it will be for one of two reasons: either they fear mankind and wish to destroy it before it becomes a threat, or they are so blindly arrogant that they think they cannot learn anything from their foes. The former would make them a fool for giving into their terror, the latter a fool for not realizing that perfection is a goal that by its very nature can never be achieved."

"Wow, never thought you'd criticize your own work…"

"As I mentioned, it was not _my_ decision. No, if the choice had been mine, I would have created a virus that turns its victims into beings like yourself: fully sentient and self-aware Zerg. That would be a better use of the Terrans than turning them into mere cannon fodder."

"I guess I'll take that as a complement. Still, without a cure the enemy is going to have a _lot_ of new recruits when the lead starts flying. I need options, Abathur."

"I asked Za'gara to begin breeding ultralisks, my queen. They should be able to thin the horde quite easily."

"Your solution to an epidemic is to have giant monsters turn the sick into guacamole?" Kerrigan asked, shock evident in her voice. Abathur was callous, but this was ridiculous. "I hope to god you never take up medicine…"

"If my solution achieved the desired result, what does it matter?"

The queen remembered rule number one of arguing morality with Abathur: Don't argue morality with Abathur. It's better that way. If nothing else, the powerful ultralisks would probably be able to meet the hybrid army head on. It was hard to argue with results, after all. Her Swarm could always use a little extra bite, she reminded herself.

Suddenly, Izsha called, saying that she had something important to show. Something Kerrigan needed to see herself. She obliged, taking any excuse to get out of Abathur's lab.

Anything that would help her forget just how quickly she went from wanting to space the damn grub, to partially agreeing with him…


	98. Chapter 98

**Bridge, Hyperion, Deep Space**

Many in the Dominion have wondered why the Raiders have proven so difficult to capture. After all, they were fugitives from an empire stretching much of known space. With little to no resources and death only a hull-breach away, they should have been stopped a long ago. Yet somehow, they weren't. They not only survived, they thrived; sparking a revolution and stopping the Queen of Blades. How could they have accomplished so much with so little? Was it incompetence on the Dominion's end? Dumb luck? Raynor's command? The truth was, as usual, a combination of those factors and many others, one of which Raynor now found himself loathing.

All Terran worlds are connected through an FTL communications system that spans most of the sector. This provides humanity with the ability to send and receive messages in real-time, be they military orders, birthday cards, or pictures of cute cats. Now, however, it was sending a message Raynor wished he had never heard:

CAPITAL UNDER HEAVY DURESS FROM ALIEN ASSAULT – STOP. DEFENCE FLEET OVERWHELMED – STOP. DEFEAT IMMINENT UNLESS REINFORCED – STOP. ALL DOMINION SHIPS ARE TO CEASE ALL OPERATIONS BEYOND SYSTEM DEFENSE AND RETURN TO THE KORHAL SYSTEM AT ALL SPEED – STOP.

"This is real, isn't it, general?" Raynor asked Warfield, praying to whatever God was still out there that it was a hoax.

"Looks that way. It's got the proper encryption, has been sent on the right channels, and given what your boy Zeratul said…"

"Is there any chance that it's a trap? Mengsk trying to lure us in with a nonexistent damsel in distress?"

"It's not impossible, I guess, but…" The general sighed. "Raynor, every Dominion soldier in the sector just got this message. Hell, anyone in the sector with a decent comm. system got the message. Right now, most of the military are either running back to the home system or digging in, trying to protect their own turf. I know Mengsk is desperate, but even he can't afford to pull something like this."

"Dictators aren't exactly the most sane people around."

"Mengsk is not crazy." Warfield added. "Selfish, yes. Brilliant, absolutely. Ruthless, beyond a shadow of a doubt. Insane, no. He may be desperate to get to you, but he won't destroy his entire empire for a chance to put you out of the picture. No, this distress call is real. Your hybrids just invaded Korhal itself."

"Sir," Matt Horner said, suddenly. "I just got of the horn with Kerrigan. She got the same message and is asking if she needs to move. Valerian is also requesting that we move in on the Korhal system. I think Warfield's right."

Raynor lowered his head. It was finally happening. The enemy had reared its ugly head. "I guess this is it, then… Tell all our allies to move to Korhal immediately. When we get there, contact whatever's left of the defenses. We got a planet to save."

The commander went to the cantina, hoping to grab himself a cold one before they'd arrive. Horner sat beside him, his uniform as impeccable as always and completely out of place in a damn bar. "Matt…"

"Commander…"

"Mad at me for sending you on another suicide mission with allies that are almost guaranteed to stab us in the back?"

"Not really. You get used to it…sir."

Raynor chuckled while handing his friend a shot of whiskey. "I hope so, for your sake. I think there's gonna be a lot of last stands and final battles in the next few weeks. Here's to hoping that this little stunt doesn't turn out like the last one."

"All things considered, sir, I think it turned out quite well. We did more with hundreds than the Dominion ever could with millions: defeating the Queen of Blades, killing millions of Zerg…"

"Get themselves betrayed by the same person we're trusting now… How'd Sarah manage to talk me into this?"

"I don't think women need psychic powers to get men to do whatever they want."

"Is that why you ran from Mira Han?" Raynor realized that it probably was a little too soon to make jokes about the late mercenary. Horner had seen the reports, but when he heard about Han, his face turned to stone. The commanders still didn't know if he wanted to have a funeral or throw a party. "Sorry, too soon."

"It wasn't like you could have done anything about it." The captain replied. "She was already dead when you got there. If nothing else, I can stop worrying that she'll be hired out to kill us."

"Well, my condolences anyway. It's a pity that that Orlan's dead too, though. With him, we wouldn't have to be relying on Junior for decryption and all that. You know how much I hate not being self-sufficient."

"All too well. Still, I'm more worried about Mengsk, right now. If Korhal is half the mess we think it is, he might just get away."

"Not that big of a deal, Matt. It'll give Sarah something to do when the dust settles."

"Yes, and that's what I'm worried about. I'm not sure if we really want that to happen. Don't get me wrong, I'd rather see the emperor dead than alive, but I don't know if it's a good idea to let Kerrigan be the one to kill him. We don't want to turn the emperor into a martyr."

Raynor would have agreed. However, this was Arcturus they were talking about. "That's only an issue if there's anyone who still thinks Mengsk is someone worth fighting for. How many of those are still around? Face it, Matt, we did it. We brought Arcturus down. We destroyed his legitimacy and made him irrelevant. All that we need to do now is put a bullet in his head. It doesn't really matter who does it or why at this point. At least, not to me."

"Well, if there's anyone who deserves to pull the trigger, it's certainly Kerrigan…" Horner conceded. "Of course, all of this is assuming that we live long enough to see it happen. For all we know, the Hyperion could get blown out of the sky by the hybrids and Mengsk will still outlive the both of us."

"Guess I'll just have to trust that you won't let that happen…" And the commander knew that there was better man in the universe to captain the Hyperion than Matt.

"Makes you wonder what will happen, though. Now that I think about it, there're really only two ways this can end: victory or death. I still don't know which one scares me more."

"It's always been victory or death, Matt."

"Not like this. Before, when it was just us versus Mengsk, the worst that could happen is that we all died. That would be unfortunate, but not the end of the world. Humanity would move on without us. Mengsk will eventually die from old age or be killed by whoever replaces us. There's always been hope of a better future, regardless of the outcome of our revolution. Now…"

"Now we're fighting someone that makes the Zerg look like cockroaches…"

"Outnumbered and outgunned, forced to turn to former enemies for survival…"

"The more things change, the more they stay the same…"

"God, when did we become grumpy old men?" Horner laughed.

Before Raynor could respond, Warfield called him to the bridge with the ship's intercom. Apparently Valerian had arrived in the Korhal system before they did and had established contact with the leader of the garrison. Sarah had been called too. He also noticed that the general sounded very, very grumpy. The commander found out why when he returned to the bridge with the captain in tow.

Apparently none other than General Morrigan was in charge. The same General Morrigan that locked him up and had been hounding Kerrigan's Swarm for weeks. Warfield wasn't happy and Raynor could sympathize. "You know what, Raynor," The old general said. "you were right about Mengsk; he is crazy. No sane ruler would put a psychotic madman like him in charge of a planet's defense."

"The emperor didn't _put_ me in charge, per se. I took command because I'm the highest-ranking officer left on the planet and _someone_ needs to keep this world from falling into enemy hands." Morrigan said defensively, while still glaring at Kerrigan through the corner of his eye. "Raynor. I guess this is the time where you get to say 'I told you so'."

"For once, I don't want to, general." The commander replied calmly, trying very hard to ignore the seething Warfield. "Whether you believe it or not, we're here to help out the best we can. However, I would like to know where Mengsk is and what his part is in all this."

"Mengsk? He's locked up in his palace and he'll stay there if I have anything to say about it. Suffice it to say that he's done enough damage already and is no longer part of the decision-making process. Anyway, I'm willing to fight alongside you, regardless of the emperor's wishes or your questionable choice in 'allies', God help us all. I'm in no shape to turn down help or be restrained by politics."

"Or any sense of humanity and decency, for that matter." Warfield growled. "How many cities have you burned down already?!"

"You and I may have different methods, but I wouldn't do something like that if…"

"Seventeen, Jack!" The older general roared. "Seventeen cities on Torus you butchered to the last man!"

"Those people were infested, as the eggheads were able to confirm later on! I did what I had to do! You know as well as I how quickly a small infestation can spread."

"That doesn't justify murder!"

"This isn't murder, Warfield. Not when the Zerg sealed their fate before I did. I've seen what happens to humans that the Zerg get their hands on. Believe me, they're better off dead." Throughout Morrigan's ranting, the image Kerrigan remained still as a statue. One might say that she didn't care, but Raynor knew her better than that. He could tell that she was feeling like a junior officer receiving a dressing-down from a superior for an unforgivable failure.

"Generals, please!" Valerian said, trying to break up the squabbling officers. "We have bigger things to worry about than our own petty differences. We all know that you do not agree with each other's methods, but I'm asking you, for the sake of the human race, to swallow your pride and try to work with each other, at least for the moment. Considering the tactical data the White Star sent me, I'm sure you'll understand that fighting each other isn't an option." To the prince's credit, he did manage to get the generals to shut up. "Thank you. Now, we have an army at our disposal and I suggest we use it. General Morrigan, where is our help needed most?"

"They've been hitting all over the planet with varying levels of success. Korhal has always been well defended since the recolonization four years ago. In spite of that, we're losing ground across the planet. From what I can tell, for the moment, we still have control over most of the major cities and population centers. At least the ones that didn't have Moebius labs under them. Apparently, the emperor has been breeding himself an army and now it's biting him in the ass." The commander was a little shocked to hear this. Sure, he knew that Mengsk had been breeding a hybrid on Castanar, but he never expected the emperor to be desperate enough to try and breed them en masse. "What happens to him after the war is not my concern, as long as we get something resembling a government afterwards. Anyway, hardest hit is the capital, Augustgrad. Mainly because that's where the whole war effort is being coordinated from and because its defenses have been weakened after _someone_" The general glared at Raynor, viciously. "decided it would be funny to redecorate the central business district with a giant war-machine. It's now home to the biggest Zerg hive on Korhal, so thanks for that. At any rate, that should be the focus of your efforts right now."

Raynor thought for a moment, before asking: "Are there any survivors in the city proper?"

"We haven't been able to contact anyone beyond the palace walls. Telemetry indicates that there might be a few hold-outs, here and there, but it's safe to say that anyone in the city is either dead or wishing they were. The hybrids have been firing Zerg spores into the atmosphere that are polluting the rain and the water supply of occupied cities around the planet. I don't think I need to tell you what's happening to the people who are exposed to the contaminated water, now do I?"

"Well, I'm sure we don't need to burn down all of Augustgrad. We still have the Xel'Naga artifact." Valerian added.

"No." Raynor said. "We still don't know what that thing does or what will happen to the hybrids if they get blasted by it. For all we know, it could end up making them stronger. We can't take that chance, not without being sure that it won't make things worse."

"I suppose you're right." The prince agreed. "After all, we have the Zerg Swarm on our side this time. If there's any way of curing the infected without resorting to the artifact, I'm sure that they will share it with us. Wouldn't you, miss Kerrigan?"

Kerrigan guiltily shook her head. "I already talked with my chief scientist about that. His outlooks are grim and he's rarely been wrong. He thinks that the best we can hope for is a treatment to keep some of the symptoms under control, and even that's going to take months to create."

"A cure can't be that difficult, darlin'. Your friend already made the disease, right? Can't be that hard to fix it too." Raynor didn't want to consider what would have to happen if there really was no cure. He really didn't want to have to live through another Meinhoff.

"He never bothered with a cure because he didn't need to. His viruses don't affect other Zerg. I'm sorry, Jim. I might be able to 'recruit' the few victims that retained their sanity from the hybrids, but the others…You might want to look into that artifact some more."

Morrigan sneered. "Well, it's not that surprising that a force of evil has trouble doing something constructive for a change."

"If there was a better way, I would have tried that. I'm not the Queen of Blades." Kerrigan scowled in return.

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't. Either way, you're still a professional killer, now armed with a gun that can kill entire worlds. The question is: who are you going to use it on?"

Before Kerrigan could respond, Raynor interrupted: "Augustgrad. If it's home to the biggest Zerg hive on the planet, we need to deal with it now, and if the hybrids have taken over the whole place, we won't have to worry about friendly fire from human troops. I suggest that Kerrigan's Swarm focuses their attention there; reclaiming the city and using it as a staging ground for taking back the rest of the planet. The human forces will split up and hit the smaller hives and bases scattered around to take of the pressure from the capital."

"A sound plan." Morrigan conceded. "There's just one thing: call it a hunch, but I don't think that Korhal is the only planet where the enemy is breeding their hybrids. We haven't received news that they're under attack yet, but still…"

"Let's focus on Korhal first. As far as we can tell, the bulk of their forces are there. Once we get the capital back, we'll worry about the other planets."

The other commanders nodded in agreement. Before signing off, Kerrigan had one more thing to say: "Well, I'll gather the troops, then. Oh, and Morrigan? I'll be sure to tell Tai you're still alive. He was devastated when you tried to take your own life. Just remember that humanity doesn't have the monopoly on compassion. I'd appreciate it if, for the sake of a mutual friend, you'd stop forgetting that." With that, she cut the connection, followed by a seemingly annoyed Morrigan.

"What was that all about?" Captain Horner asked Raynor.

"Long story. Let's just say that a lot of things aren't as black-and-white as they once were." The commander sighed. "Remember when this was all about freedom and not saving the universe… Can't believe I miss the bad old days."


	99. Chapter 99

**Behemoth, Korhal System**

Kerrigan wasn't an expert on naval warfare. Hell, she wasn't an expert on anything, except ways to kill people. Still, looking at the battlefield in front of her, she came to the same conclusion that all the other commanders had:

The Korhal system was a mess.

Ships of all shapes, sizes and conditions littered the battlefield. Vessels dodged and weaved, exchanging weapons fire until someone else blindsided them. Ships warping off and entering faster than she could follow, even with the enhancements the Zerg had given her. A 'mess' would be the only word to describe this.

It was time for some much-needed clean-up. Ushering her massive behemoth forward, the queen made her move towards the fourth planet. She could feel the floor reverberate with every shot from the creature's massive guns. Like a glacier, her Swarm, _the_ Swarm, inched closer to the planet, while slagging everything that didn't have a Raider or Dominion IFF. She could feel the anticipation in the air. The heartbeats of her minions waiting for the moment that they could be unleashed on the hybrids, the dying embers of the crews that fell before her fleet, Me'dea's calm, methodical thoughts as she directed the behemoth to send another vessel into oblivion. It felt good.

Her strategy was simple: have the behemoth take up geosynchronous orbit over Augustgrad and hurl everything she had the enemy hive below her. Once on the ground, she could find out where the hybrids were coming from and put a stop to them, permanently. With Augustgrad secure and the largest enemy hive neutralized, she would have taken the first step to retake the planet.

And Arctutus himself? He could spend his final moments knowing that the very evil he unleashed is now saving humanity and undermining his empire while doing it.

With space superiority around the planet secured, the leviathans in the Zerg fleet broke off and joined the system-wide melee. The enemy fleets, caught between the Dominion, the reinforcements, and the defense grid, didn't have the ability to gather together and form a unified front fast enough. While they were still a threat, the enemy couldn't congregate long enough to bring down a leviathan, or put a dent in the innumerable flocks of Zerg flyers Kerrigan had brought with her from Marrakesh. She could only smile. With the enemy being swept aside, her broods wouldn't have to worry about the enemy striking from above, at least for the moment. Not yet anyway. They'd be back eventually, but by then she'd be planetside and have a massive hive of her own operational.

Not to say that the queen didn't have her work cut out for her: the enemy's ground army was still enormous and orbital bombardment wasn't an option. A projectile launched at relativistic speeds hitting a planet would, understandably, have catastrophic consequences. As Izsha put it, if she used those things, she'd probably do more damage than the hybrids ever could. In other words, this fight would have to be won with an old-fashioned ground war. For some reason, however, Kerrigan didn't mind too much. The bloodlust of her Swarm was intoxicating and she wanted to be groundside as soon as possible to revel in it. To hear her enemies' skulls crack under her boot. To feel the last flicker of fear before she boiled their minds.

Kerrigan slapped herself in the face. This wasn't her. This wasn't becoming of someone like her. As a queen, as a soldier, she's supposed to be above such things. Besides, the battle ahead would probably be harder than any she's faced thus far: hybrids by the hundreds and legions of Zerg, Terrans, and Protoss united in slavery. Not to mention the civilian population which her enemy would gladly turn against her. For the first time in history, the Zerg Swarm was actually outnumbered. What she really needed was something that could produce her cannon fodder. Preferably something mobile, like a creature that carried a hatchery on its back. Kerrigan sent the idea to Abathur, who politely explained that no creature with such an ability has ever been found by the Swarm. The queen responded by ordering him to get creative, saying that if the humans don't need other species to evolve, the Swarm could do without too. Her geneticist's response was something along the lines of 'I will not be outdone by those insolent apes!'. She didn't have the heart to tell him that pride was a human thing too…

With the behemoth slowly gliding into position, the true state of the city below became clear: she could sense terror, but only a little. Most of what she felt was the burning hatred of the Protoss, the ravenous hunger of enslaved, near feral Zerg, and the cold contempt of the hybrids. The city was almost completely overrun; she could only sense a few hold-outs of human minds left and most of those seemed too exhausted to last the week. Probably for the best. Zerg are good at many things, but minimizing collateral damage wasn't one of them. Civilians would only get caught in the crossfire, or become pawns of the enemy. No, Kerrigan knew that she did her best work away from the humans. There, where no one could see the evils she was fighting, both from without and within.

Kerrigan rubbed her temples, trying furiously to shut out the inhuman thoughts that were flooding into her brain. The urge to kill something was growing stronger by the minute. The desire to sink her claws into something, into someone, was getting harder to ignore. Every moment that passed, she could feel the wills and compulsions of the Zerg wrap tighter around her, suffocating her, slowly worming its way into her soul. Every moment the part of herself that wanted to give in, to let the impulses of the Swarm overpower her mind, to have her channel the fury around her like a beating heart, became more powerful and compelling.

She was ignoring it, but by god, it was so hard…

The queen shook her head and crushed the whirlpool of thoughts into dust. She could not afford distractions. Not now. Not while she was on the eve of a battle that could decide the fate of her entire species. If her feelings had become a liability, she'd shut them down. Without a word, she made her way to the drop bays. As it descended to the surface, only one thought was powerful enough to cut through the maelstrom:

The enemies of the Swarm scurried on the surface. They had to be cut down to the last.

**Imperial Guard Command Post, Augustgrad, Korhal**

"First traitors, then pirates, now goddamn Zerg… What's next, the Protoss?" Major Ryan said in disapproval. "If it weren't for those damn hybrids, I'd have shot you on the spot."

"If it weren't for those damn hybrids, I would have shot myself just for considering this 'alliance' we've found ourselves in. Still, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. They won't go away if I order them to, so I might as well make use of them." General Morrigan said impassively. "I think I should thank you for not shooting me already."

"We're the emperor's right hand, general. We wouldn't be here if we were stupid, and I can see when we've got our backs to the wall. If I have to chose between obeying the emperor or losing all mankind, my choice is clear. The idea of using criminals and aliens to do our dirty work is repulsive and short-sighted, but right now, we don't have the option of being picky. Not sure if others see it that way, though."

"I know. I hate having to do this, but…"

"You think they're infested, don't you… Valerian and those Raiders?" The major asked. A device on his wrist beeped, but he turned it off. "Would explain why they've been actively trying to break the Dominion in the middle of a Zerg invasion."

The general shrugged. "Could be. I'm honestly not sure anymore. Even if they aren't, though, I know the Zerg will never be our friends. Even if they did suddenly find their humanity, we'll never have peace as long as either of us are alive."

"We still have plenty of Zerg-specific contingency plans. When they'll decide to turn on us…"

"…we'll find out that half of them are useless and the other half infeasible." Morrigan muttered in defeat. "Trust me, I wrote most of them. Any war with the Swarm will be long, messy and bloody. We don't have the resources for that kind of conflict anymore."

"I won't stand idly by and let them butcher us to the last!" The major said defiantly.

Morrigan laughed in response. "Major, if you really think the Zerg want to kill us all, you really don't understand them. If they wanted genocide, they'd have finished the job after the Brood War. No, what they really want is to achieve their vision of perfection. What they want is adding the human gene pool to their own. If they win, death would be a blessing for all of us. In all likelihood, they'll retreat after the war until they find a way to quickly and efficiently infest people before swallowing our civilization whole. Hopefully, we can build some sort of defense against them in the meantime. Assuming that the next government doesn't waste their resources the way the emperor did."

The major shrugged. "That's a big assumption. Politicians being politicians, misspending is almost inevitable."

"I'm surprised to hear you say that. A ghost would probably kill you just for thinking that…" Not that the general didn't approve…

"Look, sir, the emperor needs two things from his men: loyalty and competence. Ghosts take the former to the extreme, we take the latter. If you need a mindless drone or someone to parrot your every word, you get a ghost. You need a job done right without having to resort to mind-rape, you call the Guard. Don't compare me to those idiots." This sounded…personal, the general noted.

"Touchy subject?"

"Ghosts get to sneak into traitor's houses and melt their brains. They've got an easy job: stopping messes before they start. Somehow, though, they still keep screwing up. We get sent in when they do and get captured by some madman who uses their neural inhibitors to start himself a techno-cult. Think I'm lying? Try looking up the file on the 'Church of Besainted Pelagius'. It took me three refills of my fuel tank before that got cleaned up, but not until their 'Ghost Brother' put a slug in my leg and killed five of my men in six seconds. Trust me, ghosts and resocs are bad news. You can't hold someone prisoner in their own brain, not for long. They'll break out eventually and try to kill you. If you want a problem solved without causing new ones, use a brave man with a gun. If that doesn't work, use more gun. Never failed me before. You don't win wars with all that cloak-and-dagger stuff."

Though short-sighted, Morrigan could sympathize with the man's viewpoint, even if he didn't share it. "As much as I hate to play the devil's advocate, but I've had plenty of good experiences with ghost operatives. They're highly professional and don't question orders. Useful traits when the war forces you to send men to certain death."

"Good men and women who serve out of duty would do the same." Ryan boasted. "My guardsmen would gladly sacrifice their lives for humanity. We don't need a damn chip or brain-panning to get us to do our jobs. Judging by the number of rogue ghosts I keep hearing about, I'd say that conviction and loyalty have a better track record than sticking wires in someone's skull." The major's wrist computer beeped again. "Oh, piss off!"

"What is it?"

"Goddamn emperor asking for a lift, what else?! He wants to know when his shuttle is going to arrive. I told him that, right now, the only safe place is right here in the palace and any shuttles we have are going to get blown out of the sky before we leave the atmosphere. If he goes to another planet and the aliens follow, the good emperor will be a dead man, which is bad for morale. Also, if he decides to leave, I'll be oath-bound to follow him, and I can't fight the aliens on Korhal if I'm out in the middle of nowhere protecting him. So I'm ignoring the good emperor. When I joined the Imperial Guard, I took an oath to protect mankind from all threats, within and without. Right now, I'm protecting it from his stupidity by not abandoning his people. If he's got a problem with that, he can fire me. Or send one of his pet ghosts after me. Either way, I'll be doing my duty 'till the day I die."

"It might come to that if you're not careful, and I can't afford to lose anymore men to my own kind." The general warned. "Do you have any idea what Mengsk will do now? Does he have any contingencies that might end up surprising us?"

"You mean apart from running like a whipped dog when things get too hot? Probably use his damn ghosts for something. Heard some rumors that he might end up murdering prince Valerian, given that he's pretty much losing his empire to the kid…"

Morrigan was stunned. "There's a direct threat to one of our allies and you're only mentioning it now?"

"Well, he's sort of a traitor, sir. I thought you'd have figured it out yourself by now. That, and the oath of the Imperial Guard extends only compels me to defend the emperor, not his son. Junior might even end up a martyr, if the ghosts get the job done right. Besides, if that kid takes the crown, and he can, because the whole galaxy pretty much hates the emperor thanks to our new friends, we'll end up being ruled by a damn archeologist."

"An archeologist who happens to have united half the military might of the sector under his banner. Get me the damn prince on the horn, we need to warn him."

_A/N I have talked with several people about Zerg infestation and the possibility of a cure. Now, I've sifted through the canon extensively and cannot point to any case where are cure for infestation was found and successful, especially in the long term. As far as I can tell, you can cut someone off from the Zerg hive mind and treat the symptoms, but there's no source telling me that any of these attempts have completely cured a human being. Of course, there's also nothing outright telling me that it cannot be done. In other words, the possibility of a cure is entirely up to the writer. Therefore, the question I should be asking isn't 'can Zerg infestation be cured?' but 'SHOULD Zerg infestation be cured?'._

_We human beings are (generally speaking) suckers for a happy ending, and a happy ending in this case pretty much requires a cure, given that being infested is basically living in a waking nightmare. However, this is a Blizzard game. Blizzard doesn't do happy endings and neither should I. I'm not saying that it has to be all doom and gloom, but if infestation isn't permanent, would it really carry as much emotional weight? I made a similar argument when I talked about death earlier: its meaning comes from its finality. Once you're infested, that's it. You're a Zerg and you always be a Zerg, thus forcing the characters to adapt and change in order to deal with their new condition, to find a way to live with their new existence. In my opinion, this would result in a better (not happier, better) ending than a return to the status quo ever could._

_The way I see it, infestation should change you irrevocably. Your old self and new self should be so different from one another that they probably couldn't stand each other's presence. It should be a corrupting influence that will affect every thought in your head, slowly twisting them to become more in line with that of the Zerg Swarm. Just like a cult, it is something that can be fought and slowed with willpower, but the battle for your soul should rage on for the rest of your life. I'm not saying that I succeeded in getting that point across (I probably didn't, but hey, this is my very first piece of fiction I've written. I'm entitled to some imperfections), but this was basically my intention. It may be a grim depiction, but I think that this fits in line with the overall mood of the SC canon, which has never been saccharine to begin with. Nor should it be. The thing is, there are many positive ends to being infested, like enhanced strength, agelessness and psychic power. It has to be balanced out by something. In this case, I've paired it with severe and irreparable psychological changes that aren't always for the better. If I don't, I risk afflicting the infested humans in my story with something I like to call 'Edward Cullen Syndrome': A former human spends much (if not all) of their part in the narrative whining about how their lives suck since their transformation and how he's now an abomination, in spite of the fact that, from a logical standpoint, he's better off after the transformation than before. There's nothing more annoying than a colossal whiner, especially when they whine when they have nothing to whine about._


	100. Chapter 100

**UNN headquarters, Augustgrad, Korhal**

A good reporter knows when to sink her teeth into a story. They know exactly when a story can give hope or inspiration and when it won't. Essentially, a good reporter knows when a story will attract viewers and bring the truth. Like every other reporter worth their salt, Kate Lockwell knew that the story in front of her was pure gold. One that conveyed exactly how bad things had become on the planet. A report that the people needed to hear. Yet, she couldn't bring herself to write it down, let alone broadcast it.

It was a story of a young woman and her colleague, on a business trip in the suburbs of Augustgrad, to the parts of the city that hadn't been repaired yet, supposedly due to lack of funding. Anyway, the couple went about their business until the aliens hit. Without warning, Zerg rained from the sky, Protoss materialized out of thin air, and fliers of all races undertook strafing runs, shooting anything that moved. Literally overnight, the entire city became a warzone. The woman remembered leaving everything behind and running like she was being chased by an angry god. Anything to get away from the monsters. She didn't even have time to grab her coat and simply soldiered through the seemingly perpetual rain.

They ran for hours, from house to house, from building to building, hoping to run into someone, anyone, that could help them. They ran into marines a few times, but they seemed intent on killing them too. The soldiers never even explained why they tried to shoot them, just something about an 'infection'. If it weren't for a group of Zerg that happened to pass by, they probably would have been killed then and there.

The two spent the next few days just trying to survive: finding food, collecting rainwater, and desperately trying to stay away from the creatures and the soldiers having a free-for-all outside. She remembered coughing and feeling miserable, as if she had some sort of illness. Her companion was growing quieter too. At first, she had assumed it was just the stress of the situation. After all, the seemingly invincible throne world of the Terran Dominion has suddenly been invaded, and there was no sign of the military pushing them back any time soon. She couldn't help but wonder if this was Armageddon, the end of the human race.

One morning, she shared her thoughts with her colleague. His response was strange. 'A better species will take our place' he said. 'Maybe we should stop fighting this, and just let it happen.' 'Listen to them. Isn't it beautiful?.' It was very unlike him not to make any sense. She wanted ask him what he was talking about, when she saw it: his face seemed locked in a manic, somewhat inhuman expression, and his eyes glowed yellow…

She didn't remember how all the blood got on her. She didn't remember what a pen was doing in her hands. She didn't remember how he ended up dead with his eyes gouged out. All she remembered was running. Running and crying and trying to get away from this as fast as humanly possible. She ran and ran, until at last, she found sanctuary in the UNN building, which had remained intact and was still broadcasting all this time. The last thing she knew was collapsing in front of the doorsteps and being dragged inside, wondering if they were going to kill her too. They hadn't. She woke up, looking at a gruff-looking soldier telling her that she'd probably be fine. Just a little exhaustion.

This story was incredible, Kate knew. It had everything a good report needed: a challenging situation, a person (a young and, preferably, attractive woman) being pushed to the limits and a happy ending. But she couldn't. She couldn't because this story _was her own_. She couldn't because the colleague she murdered in terror was her camera man. She couldn't because she knew there wasn't going to be a happy ending: when Lockwell returned to the UNN building, her people told her that there was a Zerg virus running around, the same kind that plagued Meinhoff a few months ago. Worst of all, it was spread by the enemy by using the rain and the water. The same rain she'd been running in for days and had been drinking when she got thirsty. It meant that whatever virus was going around, she'd been infected too. She wasn't showing symptoms yet, but without a cure, that was only a matter of time. She should have told the lieutenant in charge what was going on, but she was afraid he'd shoot her without a second thought. All the stress was becoming too much for her to handle.

Kate knew that she should be writing these things down, if only so that people would understand when she'd become a pawn of the Swarm, but she just couldn't. For the first time in her life, she couldn't bring herself to put something on paper. Just the act of remembering what happened to her made her consider neural resocialization. It was just…too much for her.

"Miss Lockwell, there are, uh, 'visitors' for you at the front gate…" The lieutenant informed her. Being the lead anchorwoman of UNN, it meant that Kate was essentially in charge of things around here nowadays. Not that it meant much anymore. She suspected that the only reason the aliens haven't attacked the headquarters yet was because they attacked with such overwhelming force that taking UNN of the air wouldn't make much of a difference anyway, regardless of what she did. Nevertheless, she remained here, doing what she could and sending whatever stories she could bring herself to put on air. If nothing else, it kept her mind of the things she could feel inside of her.

"What kind of visitors?"

"Well, they…" The officer stammered, trying to find the right words. "You'll just have to see for yourself…"

Who could it be? She'd been hearing rumors about Prince Valerian supposedly leading a coalition of human factions to stop the invasion. Whether or not that was true remains to be seen. Of course, there was that giant Zerg monster that was blotting out the sun…

But according to other rumors, that thing actually belonged to the _good_ Zerg here to rescue them. Or maybe it didn't and she was still as good as dead…

Too much. Too much to think about. There is only so much that a human mind can process in a single moment. Hell, with everything that's going on, it was getting hard to think in general. Best to handle one thing at a time. Right now, she should focus on her newest guests, whoever they are.

**Suburbs, Augustgrad, Korhal**

The city was quiet. Too quiet. Or at least that's what the Protoss warriors that Tiberias had down his scope must have been thinking. They were twitchy, agitated, and looked ready to punch something. He wondered if that's what would happen to everyone who fell under hybrid control. Maybe it had something to do with that 'Khala' link being disrupted. Or maybe not. What did he know about Protoss anyway, apart from the fact that they were so hilariously easy to ambush? Oh well. With a thought, he sprung the trap he'd prepared for them.

Suddenly, ultralisks happened and the Protoss were history.

"You know, it never ceases to amaze me how a building sized Zerg can completely disappear into the ground without anyone noticing…" Lilith said, her voice a little shaky and uneven. "I mean, even the asphalt is exactly back in place. It's like nothing even happened!"

Cain quickly shushed her, knowing that the commotion caused by the ultralisks would inevitably draw more of the enemy to them. Better that they focus on the giants than on them. Almost on cue, a massive wave of flesh, teeth, and carapace surged down the road. The ultralisks turned towards it and started doing what they do best: making salsa á la hell.

It has been like this all day: ambushing small groups of foes, fighting off the horde that promptly appeared, and occasionally trashing an enemy hive, base, or hybrid lab. In other words, a meat-grinder. One that was slowly taking its toll on both sides. The enemy attacks became less frequent, yes, but the loyalist swarm was slowly thinning too. Though an ultralisk could take on dozens of lesser foes and shrug off siege tank fire like it was nothing, they weren't invincible. The few hybrids the enemy had access to were also becoming a pain. They weren't nearly as powerful as the one on Castanar, but they still took a massive amount of punishment to bring down and had a nasty habit of taking many of the loyalist Zerg with them. Zerg that the loyalists couldn't afford to lose yet. Not until a sizable hive cluster has been set up. Still, the city would have to be cleared before that could happen.

Of course, there were other objectives as well. Most importantly, according to the queen, was that Mengsk had to be neutralized. Not killed (yet), neutralized. In other words, made insignificant to the point where no one would bat an eyelash if someone ripped off his head. The alliance needed it, she reasoned (or rationalized, but Cain didn't dare question her motives), because as long as the emperor was a man of importance, he could, and would, throw a monkey wrench in their plans at some point. Lilith objected, saying that Mengsk may be evil, but even he would know better than to play politics in the face of Armageddon. The queen quickly reminded her that Mengsk had actually _caused_ Armageddon for his own personal gain four years earlier and would have no qualms about letting everyone die rather than let the sector be ruled by anyone but him. Therefore, Arcturus Mengsk had to be dealt with as soon as possible. Preferably in a permanent manner, the queen added with a rather frightening grin. In order to pull this off, however, they'd need the media's help. Tai and Lilith were to secure the UNN headquarters, which, miraculously, was still standing in spite of its location. Once the city was secure, they could send people like Valerian or Raynor to tell the truth of what was really happening and pull the rug from under the emperor once and for all.

Unfortunately, that meant dropping right into the hot zone. With loyalist Zerg raining down all over the city and the enemy being lodged in the buildings as well as underground bunkers, the 'front' quickly became an unintelligible mess. Of course, that wasn't the biggest problem, in Cain's opinion. Zerg are, thanks to their psychic nature, easily influenced by emotions, either their own or each other's. Put enough of them in the same place and they will start egging each other on, spurred by the adrenaline their bodies produce in copious amounts. Eventually, they will turn into a surging, mindless tide, oblivious to everything, including their own safety, an event known colloquially as the 'Zerg Rush'. They will, quite literally, devour everything in their path in a rush of blind, unreasoning fury. Now, when you absolutely, positively, need everything in a certain area to die, this isn't a problem. When you want to keep something alive, however, it is. Especially because every Zerg organism is affected in some way. Including the sentient ones.

Tiberias has had plenty of experiences in the past with this phenomenon. Rather than being reduced to a mindless animal, however, he has managed to channel his fury into a more productive form. Adrenalin has many helpful benefits, being mother nature's stimpack, and he could probably go on for hours talking about situations where split-second reaction times had ended up saving his life. Still, there was the constant danger of losing control, given that his body was literally designed to enjoy the adrenalin surge. However, with some practice and experience, he was able to keep this from happening. Most of the time. To him, it was a natural part of being a Zerg.

Lilith, on the other hand, had no such experience, her only battles being ones where she reprogrammed computers and never had more than a few dozen Zerg around her. Now, with thousands within earshot...

Within seconds of landing on the surface of the planet, they were already under attack. Zerg, Protoss, everything the enemy had was hurled at the invaders. Cain didn't mind that much; there was nothing wrong with a good old-fashioned gunfight. A nice small-scale battle to get his mind off of all the politics and repercussions and nonsense that came with trying to help his queen run an entire war. It was only afterwards that he found Lilith panting in a corner, demanding to know what was happening to her and why shooting someone was feeling so good all of a sudden.

"Zerg rush." He said, without bothering to explain what it was. "You'll get used to it."

"When, in a few months?"

"Probably…"

"But we're going to get hit again long before I can get my Zen breathing exercises in. If it gets to strong, if I…if I…" Lilith was stammering. He couldn't really blame her. Losing control of your own body is terrifying and you never quite get used to it.

"If that happens, I'll be watching your back while you wait for it to fade. Don't worry, you won't be killing any of us. Trust me, you'll be fine. Hell, you might even enjoy it." Part of him already knew that he was going to regret offering himself as body-guard.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." She added in a tone that betrayed her fear. "C'mon, we should get going. The sooner we get this over with, the better."

The next fight they found themselves in, however, was much bigger than the last. The hybrids were starting to get organized. Not very well, admittedly, but still a cause for concern. The ambush they tried earlier, for example, didn't work anymore. That, however, didn't bother him nearly as much as seeing his friend break cover and rush towards the enemy before ripping them apart with her bare hands. Immediately, he opened fire on anything he could see, hoping that he'd keep the bad guys' heads down so that they wouldn't take pot shots at Lilith. The distraction worked well enough to let the rest of the Zerg take out the enemy.

Cain was about to give the girl a dressing down when he noticed that she was hanging over a hybrid's corpse with a look of ecstasy on her face and the twitching in her hands. Clear signs that she was completely under the thrall of her adrenalin. Tai cursed himself for not bringing this up sooner. A little practice and they wouldn't have been in this mess at all. Realizing that Lilith probably had no idea what was going on at the time, he decided to worry about her later and grabbed her by the arm to bring her along. After all, you can hardly blame someone for what they do when they aren't in control of their own body anymore.

Normally, when someone near you is undergoing something that can only be described as a psychotic breakdown, the sensible thing to do was to get her some help. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of a warzone and they hadn't been on the planet long enough to establish a base of operations. They'd just have to tough it out. The UNN building was nearby but there were still plenty of foes between them and the objective. That said, when the bullets started flying and the girl jumped some unlucky bastard, Cain couldn't help but notice how effective a fighter she'd become, without her caution, fear, or restraint limiting her. Probably the reason why the adrenal glands hadn't been mutated out of the Swarm's template yet. Not to mention that watching her brutally eviscerate a hybrid with the speed and grace of an artist was quite appealing to the eye…

Several fights later and they finally managed to secure the UNN building. Cain realized, however, that he now had a different problem: diplomacy. The building itself was visibly crawling with marines that he wasn't supposed to kill. In other words, he'd have to find a way talk with people that didn't like him without getting shot. Admittedly, not his greatest talent, especially when he couldn't just bully his way around. He needed them to cooperate. The Zerg couldn't effectively defend the building if everyone inside was convinced he'd try to eat them or something. Persuading them would require a deft touch. Something he was sorely lacking. He would need help.

"Lilith! Lilith, can you hear me?" He asked, while slowly directing her to a nearby rock.

Her face went from bliss, to confusion, to pure horror over the course of a few seconds. Good. She was lucid again. "Where…how…what…"

"We're near UNN's headquarters. The place is secure, for now, but we're going to have to smooth-talk our way inside. Can you help me with that?"

Lilith looked at her bloodied claws and began to panic. "What happened? What did I do?" Cain was actually grateful that the rain had washed most of the blood off of her. She would have been covered in the stuff otherwise. That wouldn't have been healthy for her sanity.

"You got a little excited. Turns out, you're a lightweight when it comes to adrenalin. It's alright, though. You killed a couple of people, but they were all bad."

"I…I did? But…but…"

"It's alright. You don't need to justify it to anyone, least of all to me. It's just a natural part of being Zerg." To his dismay, her disposition didn't improve at all. "Look, humans have something called 'collective behavior', right? People not always acting like themselves if you get enough of them in the same place together? Well, we have that too, except a little more extreme."

"I don't remember…it's like…I can feel them…"

"Lilith, I need your help. I need you to focus. Can you do that?"

"I think…I can. I'll handle it." The poor girl was still shaking, but…Hell, he couldn't wait around forever.

"I know. Now, there's a bunch of guards outside the UNN building that don't like me very much. I want you to use your charms and help me get in so we can help defend it."

"Okay…lead on."

The two slowly walked towards the building. Cain was waving a piece of white cloth that used to be a bed sheet that he found on the street. With a bit of luck, it'd be recognized as a flag of peace. Failing that, however, there were always the ultralisks to cow the defenders into submission.

Suddenly, a shot landed a few inches in front of them. "Don't come any closer, you freak!" A panicked voice cried. "I'll blow your head off!"

"No need for that. We come in peace. Let me talk to whoever's in charge." Tai said, as calm as he could.

"Why, so you can eat them too, like you ate half the damn city?! Screw you!"

So much for diplomacy. "Look pal, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have told the giant Zerg army behind me to attack and we wouldn't be standing here discussing this, now would we?"

The soldier seemed to understand and left to get his superiors. "Well, that went well." Lilith added, some spirit having returned in her voice.

Cain shrugged. "Could be worse. At least they aren't killing us."

"He probably tried to. I think just he missed."

"Let's just assume he didn't."

Soon, a Dominion soldier, a lieutenant, judging by the markings on his suit, stepped out of the buildings. "So, what the hell do you to want?"

"To save your sorry hides." Cain replied, already tired to the man's tone.

"Yeah, right. You creeps are the reason this damn war started in the first place."

"Actually, we didn't, but I'll let that slide. I'm not in the mood for a history lecture. I just wanted to remind you that if I was trying to kill you…"

"I'd already be dead, yeah, yeah, you made that very clear. Doesn't mean I…" Suddenly, the lieutenant's helmet beeped. "What is it…Are you nuts, they'll…I know, but that doesn't mean…Yes ma'am. Alright, you two, guess it's your lucky day. Try anything funny, and you'll be breathing through a new hole in your head."

After they've been taken inside (under guard of course), they met the now-famous… "Kate Lockwell, I presume?"

The head anchorwoman seemed surprised. "You have me at a disadvantage…"

"Right. I'm Tiberias, this is Lilith. Don't be too surprised, your face is on half the shows UNN broadcasts."

"You actually _watch_ UNN?"

"Why not? Great reception throughout the sector, even on Char. Your shows have gotten a little more boring, though, since Donny Vermillion left…"

"I see…" The reporter shook her head. "So, you're here and we're not dead. It doesn't take a reporter to figure out you need us alive for something."

This time, Lilith spoke up. "We need your help. Specifically, we need UNN to start broadcasting the truth."

"And what truth would that be?"

"_The_ truth. That emperor Mengsk is a crazed megalomaniac that's indirectly responsible for pretty much everything that's wrong with the sector today. That Jim Raynor isn't a pirate, but a good guy put in a negative light by, well, your organization. That the Zerg aren't necessarily evil. That sort of thing."

The reporter seemed to think it over before a mischievous smile appeared on her lips. "Hmm, I guess I could help with that…"

"You can't be serious." A soldier behind her said.

"What do we have to lose? If they wanted us dead, we would be. Besides, career opportunity of a lifetime _and_ a way to show the world what the emperor is really like. How can I say no? Now, you two, I'm going to need some things."

"Like what?" Lilith asked.

"Well, protection, for starters, from the aliens and from Mengsk. I can't run a network from a pile of rubble."

"That's what we're here for. Consider it done."

"I wasn't finished. I want an exclusive interview with Jim Raynor and whoever is in charge of the Zerg these days, oh, and anyone else of importance."

"The queen isn't going to like that…" Cain mentioned.

"We can always ask." Lilith replied. "Besides, I think it would be a good idea to get people hear her side of the story, for once."

"Well, I suppose you could ask her. Just warn me when you do. I'd like to be somewhere else when that happens."

"You know," Lockwell continued. "an interview with the 'average' infested human would be nice too…"

Lilith quickly added: "Yeah, that's not a good idea."

"Why not? I always wanted to be on TV. We can go together. It'll be fun."

"Tai, you act like you've been raised by rabid wolves and I've got parents who have no idea what happened to me. They don't need to find out their daughter is infested by watching the eight o'clock news."

"I suppose you're right…I'll contact my superiors, miss Lockwell, see what they think about this. In the mean time, you have my word that we'll do everything in our power to make sure you can broadcast unmolested."

"Then that's settled." She said, in a voice that seemed just a little too excited. "I'll start on my research right away. In the mean time, please, try not to kill anyone…"

When she left, Cain couldn't help but wonder if there was something off about that woman. Maybe it's a reporter thing…

**Bridge, Bucephalus, Korhal system**

"As you can see, your highness, the entire ship is monitored and we have extra patrols to catch anyone that slips the net. If your father's crazy enough to make an attempt on your life, you'll be safe right here."

Valerian wasn't quite as convinced as the ship's captain was. Sure, he was in space. Sure, he was surrounded by some of the finest men and women serving in the Dominion. That didn't make him any less nervous. "My father _will_ make an attempt, you can be sure of that. I've become far too great a threat for him not to."

Nova, however, sneered. "Oh please, you'll be fine. You're far too popular to get rid of. Just like Raynor."

"True, but our popularity will only increase as time goes on, especially if Kerrigan can secure the UNN's headquarters for us." The prince replied. "If he wants to get rid of me, or Raynor, for that matter, he'll have to do it now, while he still can. It may be his only chance."

"Even so, the only ones still loyal to him at this are going to be his ghosts. I can handle them."

"You're one woman. They're going to come in a group."

"Yeah, but I'm a PI 10." Nova said, cocksure as ever. "Trust me, I'll be fine, and so will you."

Valerian didn't answer. He just looked at the wireframe model of his ship. The captain, however, took offence. "You know, you don't need to micromanage this. I'll handle it."

"If you're handling it, why is the starboard maintenance port on deck 17 open?"

The captain's face suddenly turned a few shades paler. "That's not supposed to be…" Immediately, he grabbed his radio and said: "Patrol squad 14, there's a maintenance port open on deck 17. Check it out…14, do you copy? Ah, crap. Prince Valerian, stay here. Nova, help me hunt them down."

And so it begins, Valerian thought. He always knew that sooner or later he'd have to face his father's assassins. He knew that the only reason the emperor hadn't already was because he'd never been enough of a threat to be worth the effort of killing. Now, things had changed. It was almost flattering, in a twisted way, to be considered dangerous enough to warrant the attention of ghosts. Still, there's something painful about knowing that your own father was literally trying to kill you.

Why couldn't he have a normal family…

_A/N So, one hundred chapters._

_ONE HUNDRED CHAPTERS!_

_Holy freaking hell! How did this even happen? _


	101. Chapter 101

**Imperial Guard Command Post, Korhal**

Raynor was feeling nervous. Even though he was surrounded by his best men and everyone in earshot was, at worst, a reluctant ally, he still couldn't help but feel like everyone in the damn city wanted him dead. Then again, he was in the middle of Augustgrad and a stone's throw away from the Imperial Palace. Being in the proverbial lion's den would make any sane man nervous.

He could feel the stares of the red-clad marines boring into him. When he realized that he didn't dare to lift his visor for fear of showing any hint of weakness, that's when Raynor knew that he wasn't among friends anymore. Even the Zerg hives on Char were more hospitable than this place. At least he was allowed to shoot the residents of that corrupted hell-hole. These men, along with probably being Mengsk's last supporters, were too important for the war effort to just gun down. From what Warfield told him about the Imperial Guard, he gathered that these people were selected because they were smart, loyal, and not afraid to get their hands dirty. Only rarely did the emperor deploy them, but when he did, the result was brutal. To the Guard, 'victory' means barging in guns blazing and butchering every enemy until there was nothing left standing. The worst part about it all was that Raynor was actually glad they were here.

The commander knew what he was up against. He knew better than anyone what the Hybrids could do. He had faced both the Zerg and the Protoss in battle many times in the past. Most of all, however, he knew what would happen if they failed and what would be necessary to keep that from happening. Without men and women willing and able to do the dirty work, to commit atrocities in the name of survival, they were already doomed.

Raynor hated this war already.

Voices could be heard in the command center. Not surprising, given the war going on. "…Sectors 6 and 8 have already been liberated by Kerrigan's Zerg. The Hybrids are aware of the development and are sending most of their forces against her. I suggest relocating our men to the north, where they can do more good taking out the Protoss hiding in Fredricksville."

"Fair point, major. Just keep a token force of scouts behind. I want to keep an eye out on the Zerg."

"With respect, sir, the Protoss are warping in en-masse at Fredricksville. We'll need every man. Warfield's troops are having trouble enough as it is."

"Tell him he'll have to make do. If he needs more men, he can go onto the field himself and punch a couple of them like the pompous old sod that he is. I won't leave our flanks unprotected. Not when there are 'friendly' Zerg camping right next to us."

"As you say, general."

Finally, the Dominion officers took notice of the newcomer in their midst. Strangely enough, the general didn't glare at him like he was some…well, some pirate. Unlike the others, who seemed to be sizing him up for a noose. In times like these, Raynor could see why Kerrigan hated being able to read minds and why he was lucky that he couldn't. Count your blessings, the commander thought…

"Commander Raynor."

"General Morrigan."

"You don't like me." Morrigan's words were a statement, not a question.

"Don't take it personal. I don't like anyone who puts me in jail. Especially when a man I trust has little good to say about you."

Morrigan snickered. "Warfield is an excellent general…if we were still fighting humans and only humans. He's one of the old stock, a by-the-book kind of officer that's more concerned with preserving his army and minimizing casualties on both sides than winning battles. We both know that that kind of thinking won't win us this war."

"Maybe. Maybe not. I'm not here to discuss semantics. The more time we spent talking to one another, the stronger our enemy gets. We ain't got that luxury."

"No, we don't."

"Besides, you did just warn us of an attempt on Mengsk Junior's life. I appreciate that. Guess you can't be all bad." As painful as that may be to admit, the commander mentally added.

"I don't know what will happen to the current emperor, but if he dies, we will need a replacement. We can't afford to waste time killing each other, now can we? Especially if we risk anarchy in the process." To the general's credit, his tone hadn't changed at all. Professional to the core or so jaded that he just didn't care anymore? Raynor couldn't tell.

"Fair enough."

"With that settled, I'll need manpower around…" With that, Morrigan began rattling off orders thinly disguised as suggestions. As much as Raynor hated it when someone essentially took charge of the Raiders, the commander didn't stop the general. His ideas were making sense, anyway. Might as well let him think that he's in charge of everything. Raynor knew that he'd have to interfere at some point, but he'd cross that bridge when the time came. For now, there was a war to fight.

**Deck 17, Bucephalus, Korhal System**

The sound of a psi-powered bullet pierced the air, followed instantly by a muffled scream and the sound of a body dissolving. Another one down, Nova thought.

Cloaking devices are nice, but only if your enemy doesn't have the means to see through it. Light can be bent around bodies. Thermal energy can be scattered into the environment. Noise can be dampened to the point where even the most keen-eared overlord in the galaxy couldn't hear you. But nothing, NOTHING, could hide someone's mind from a PI-10 psychic.

They could muffle it a bit, if they were standing far away, but that was difficult on a warship in the middle of a fight. Not a lot of room to move about and avoid obstacles or nosy psychics. There were only a finite number of ways to get to the bridge, after all. This made boarding actions oh-so frustrating for a ghost. When you rely on speed and stealth, your worst enemy wasn't turrets or patrols, it was being cornered. If you do get cornered, the only thing that can save you are your guns and your armor. Considering that the average marine gets much bigger guns and power armor, one can see that such a situation is far from ideal.

The heavy footfalls of CMC's on deck plating was becoming louder. Good. The one advantage that Nova had over the boarding party is that the marines could herd her enemies. It was nice to have the home field advantage work in her favor for a change. All ghosts were trained in offensive boarding actions, but being on the other team for once was a nice, new experience.

Another shot rang out, and another shimmer collapsed. This was getting easy. Almost too easy.

Then again, she did have an advantage that Mengsk's ghosts would never have: experience. With a series of unfortunate events undoing her memory wipes, she could actually learn from the mistakes she made during her previous missions. And mistakes she'd made, more than she'd like to admit… So many small lessons to be learned, that would have been swept away with the next memory wipe.

Lesson number one: using science for fun and profit. Kerrigan was able to reduce people to a gory mess by telekinetically squishing them between two pieces of wall. While Nova didn't have the raw power the Zerg queen had, there was a weapon on the ship that the former confederate ghost never thought off: bulkheads. Each was programmed to seal shut almost instantly in case of a hull breach. To make sure that the doors wouldn't seal without cause, there were sensors on the doors that would cause it to shut if they noticed a sudden drop in pressure. While Nova couldn't manipulate neosteel easily, she could manipulate air, and push away the air molecules around the hyper-sensitive sensors. The result was something that could best be described as a reincarnation of the guillotine. Guess those expensive tutors her father hired were good for something.

The ghost started moving towards the bridge. Nova was good, but even she wasn't so arrogant to assume that she'd taken them all down just yet. The emperor must have known that Valerian would be heavily guarded. He would probably send every ghost agent he could spare, just to ensure that his son would die. Disgusting, when she thought about it. That anyone could be pushed so far as to order a hit on their own family…

Silencing her thoughts, she moved onwards, ordering the ship's marine complement to move ahead of her. Right now, her best chance was to try and cut the boarders off and corral them like the animals the Ghost Program had turned them into. God help anyone who tried to lay a hand on _her_ Prince Charming.

Nova reached out with her mind, trying to find her prey among the sea of souls that crowded around the nerve center of the ship. They were getting closer to him. Her heart started beating faster. She had to stop them, whatever the cost.

She fired another round at a shimmer and watched it collapse. Lesson number two: getting shot in the shins hurts like hell. The kneecaps are well protected in most suits, but not the points where the knees and the shin-guards connected. With pain clouding her victim's mind, Nova telekinetically shredded the operative's heart. Lesson number three: all it takes to bring someone down is a small amount of force at the right spot.

As the ghost got closer to the bridge, she started finding corpses. Not other ghosts, but marines. Apparently, the boarders had decided to forgo stealth and run in guns blazing. A suicide mission, in other words. Even if they reached their target, they would have alerted every soldier on the ship. Not even a squad of ghosts could live through something like that. Not that Mengsk would have cared much for the lives of his people, and if he didn't care, his brain-panned operatives wouldn't either.

Gunfire ahead. Bullets and screaming and the sounds of dying men. She was cutting it close.

The sounds were subsiding, but the ghosts were still alive. Dammit, they were getting through!

A ghost in the doorway, with a pistol aimed within. Whatever he was up to, it couldn't be good. Nova roared and fired in his direction, but her opponent was lightning fast. In a single motion, he took aim and forced her back into cover. But she couldn't let him succeed. He wouldn't get to the prince. Her prince. He would…

Silence.

No fighting. No screaming, just silence. This was bad. Really bad. The prince could be injured, or dead, or…or…

…standing over the ghost's body with a bloodied sword in his hand?

"I believe the princes from the fairy tales usually defeated evil with a sword, didn't they? Never thought I'd live up to that part of the stereotype…"

Without fanfare, Nova hugged him. "You idiot! You idiot! You're up against a ghost. The sensible thing to do is run, not to jam a sword in his back!" She was so happy that he was alright, but at the same time, she wanted to kill him.

"For your information, I'm part of a conspiracy to remove a tyrannical despot, allied myself with the Zerg, used unknown alien technology to scramble my brain…well, I could go on. My point is, one would think that by now, you'd have realized that I'm not a very sensible man…"

"No, you're not…"

"Excuse me?" He said, feigning offence.

"You're not a sensible man, your highness."

"That's better. It's good to know that you care."

Suddenly, Nova realized that she was hugging the crown prince of the Dominion, and quickly withdrew, blushing deeply. When she noticed that Valerian was every bit as embarrassed as she was, the two shared an uneasy laugh. "Well, that was awkward. So, what happens now? Do you want me to assassinate your father in return? Get revenge?" Actually, an assassination mission seemed quite good, right about now. Anything to get out of the room and away from this awkward…awkwardness thing.

"No, not like this." The prince replied thoughtfully. "I hate my father, but I'll be damned before I turn into him. Besides, his life is not for me to take."

"What then? The emperor is just going keep sending hit squads until he's removed from power. We have to deal with him."

"We?"

"We. I'm part of this too, now, remember?"

The price smiled softly. "In that case, I may have something in mind. My father's greatest weakness is his people learning the truth. I intend on using that against him."

"Alright, I'm interested…"

**Augustgrad, Korhal**

Abathur's newest creations actually looked cute. At least, that's what Kerrigan thought. It's just…they waggled. It's like a mutant puppy trying to carry a cow on its back. By Zerg standards, that was completely adorable. Almost adorable enough to forget that they spawned slightly-less adorable monstrosities when they burrowed into the ground…

The swarm host, as her geneticist had started calling it, was the probably the one of the first things he'd created completely from scratch. It could burrow into the ground, leech nutrients from the soil, and use them to spawn dog sized insects that could chew their way through just about anything. Watching the little guys go to town on a horde of Hybrid controlled Zerg actually made Kerrigan feel a little warm inside. Of course, the biggest reason that the swarm host was such a success was that it could spawn the little bugs almost indefinitely. Theoretically, the enemy would run out of humans to convert long before the hosts would run out of spawn. Now, with these creatures by her side and a hive slowly becoming operational, a war of attrition with the hybrids was looking more winnable by the hour.

There was something else about her newest additions to the Swarm. Not their tactical value, but what they represented. For the first time since…well, ever, as far as Kerrigan knew, the Zerg created a new combat-capable strain by themselves, without infesting anything. It was living proof that the Swarm could create life without destroying another. That the Zerg could be a creative force in the universe.

The fact that Abathur's creation was another weapon of war was just semantics.

Slowly, but surely, the loyalists were pushing the enemy back, and that was all that mattered. This is what the Swarm was for: to fight and grow stronger. This is what the Zerg were meant to do.

That great palace in the distance, and her prize within, looked closer and closer each passing moment.

Soon.

So, very, very soon.


	102. Chapter 102

**Imperial Guard Command Post, Korhal**

With the briefings done, Raynor had some time to do some intelligence gathering of his own by calling up Kerrigan to see how she and her swarm were doing. You could sneak around and try to spy on your allies like Morrigan suggested, or you could simply trust them and give them a call.

To Raynor, however, this call had nothing to do with actual intelligence gathering. It was just a convenient excuse to talk to Sarah again. No one else needed to know that, of course.

"Hi there, darlin'."

"Jim? Why are you calling? Is everything alright?" If anything, she sounded surprised. Probably hadn't expected him to call so soon.

"Doing fine right here, just needed to hear your voice. See if you're doing okay."

"Of course, you did." Kerrigan said. Then again, she could always see straight through him. "We're doing fine on our end. Give me two days, and I'll have the hybrids out of the city, unless something absolutely horrible happens."

"Good to hear. Now, how are you _really_ doing?"

Kerrigan paused before answering. "Ever tried getting a thousand cats on stimpacks to do a song and dance routine?"

"Can't say that I have."

"Then I have no way of explaining this to you. God, trying to keep all of those damn Zerg from getting _too_ excited…It's driving me crazy. They're like children sometimes. With kitchen knives glued to their hands."

Though Raynor was a little worried hearing the phrase 'driving me crazy', it was his job, his _duty_, to support her, even if he couldn't really understand what she was going through. So he helped, in the only way that made sense to him. "Sounds like you're discovering the joys of motherhood. Just remember that 'no' really means 'no'. Oh, and don't feed them too much sugar. They'll be jumping on the furniture all day if you do that." He quickly suppressed the memory of his own parenting.

"Bite me, Jim. You know, this whole mess would be so much easier if daddy would come home from work sometime…"

"Well, someone's gotta make money for that little cottage with the white picket fence, darlin'." Raynor said, teasingly.

"Guess you won't be home for dinner, right?"

"I'm counting on it. I know how you cook."

"Ass."

"Guilty as charged."

Sarah smiled before going back to business. "Jim, we took the UNN building. The lead anchor woman, a Kate Lockwell, if I remembered that right…she wants an interview."

"Not a problem. I've been waiting for a chance to tell our side of the story. Guess Valerian can come too?"

"Yes, of course, but…Jim, she wants to interview me too and…and I think I should accept."

Raynor could hear the uncertainty in her voice. "But you don't want to…"

"I don't know. I'm not…I don't know if I can do this, or if I'll just make things worse. I've done this before but…This isn't Michal Liberty and his audience of a few hundred rebel sympathizers. UNN has billions or viewers, I'm still the queen of the Zerg, and she'll ask questions I don't think I'll want to answer." Sarah had baggage. Everyone did, but few people, if any, have been through the sheer amount of shit that she'd have to put up with. It makes sense that you wouldn't want all of that on the street. "I'm not one of the good guys, Jim. I never was."

"Yes, you are, honey. Look, no one's making you do anything. If you really don't want to…"

"But if I don't, it'll sound like I've got something to hide. That I'm still…_her_. I'll hurt your revolution. Hell, I'll hurt you. I can't let that happen." The fear in her voice was obvious. Fear of herself. Fear of the truth. Or at least the version of the truth that everyone has in their heads.

"I honestly don't have an answer to that, darlin'. Much as I hate to say it, it's for you to decide if you're up for it. That's the downside of free-will, you know. Responsibility." Honestly, Raynor could understand why she was so worried. Before, all the decisions in her life were made for her, for better or for worse. Now, now she had to make her own choices. "Don't be scared, Sarah. You're the queen of the goddamn Zerg Swarm, and those bugs are damn lucky to have you calling the shots. If you can handle them, you can handle some nosy reporter. Besides, you don't need to make that decision now. UNN ain't going nowhere."

"I guess you're right. I should get back to work. Abathur seems to have done something creative again."

"Be sure to put it on the fridge with a little fruit-shaped magnet. He'll be so proud."

"I'm sure he would be. Kerrigan out."

The commander sighed and started at the blank screen for a few minutes. He was worried sick about her. He shouldn't be, but still. Knight-in-shining-armor routine. She was a strong woman, though. Stronger than anyone in the galaxy. She'd pull through, one way or another.

Raynor was pulled out of his thoughts by a distorted voice behind him. "So, you and that Zerg woman…"

"Complicated…and personal, major."

"Fair enough. Not her I'm really worried about, though. If she wants to turn on us, now or right after the hybrids are kicked off the planet, I won't be able to stop her anyway." The calmness of his voice, combined with his faceless helmet was creeping the commander out.

"So what's our problem, then? I can tell when someone's giving me the silent treatment."

"Do you know who, or rather, what, I am?"

"You're an officer of the Imperial Guard. One of Mengsk's personal boogiemen." Though they didn't have the infamy that ghosts did, Raynor knew enough about them to know that they might end up standing between Kerrigan and Mengsk. A very bad place to be.

"Very observant, commander. Now, I think you can guess what our problem is." The major said in the same impassive tone.

"I want to kick the emperor of his throne. Your job is to keep that from happening."

"Exactly. I can't allow you to raise a finger against him. Not while I'm in a position to stop you. However…if me and my men were deployed in Fredricksville and the emperor is killed or arrested while we are away, I wouldn't be violating my oath. We'll be leaving in the morning. I suggest you get ready to do what you must."

Raynor was dumbstruck. Mengsk's personal guard just handed him the emperor's head on a silver platter? "Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but… why help me? I'd have thought that you, of all people…"

"…would assume that you're a pirate and a race traitor? Look, I don't know what's true and what's not. I'm just a soldier. I do know this, however: you're here, fighting side-by-side with us. _Helping_ us. If Mengsk was right about you, you'd have cut your losses and hidden on some forgotten planet while we deal with the aliens, and while I can't approve of your allies, I can't deny that if it weren't for the Zerg, we probably would have been crushed by now. So I figure that if the emperor was wrong about you, the Zerg, and everyone else you're working with, I can only assume that he's wrong about himself too. Can't say if my colleagues agree with me, though. So we're heading to Fredricksville."

"Thank you."

"Why? I haven't actually done anything."

"No, I guess you didn't…"

"Just don't make me regret leaving…too much."

**Outskirts of Augustgrad, Korhal**

Mere hours after the shoot-out on the Bucephalus, Nova was back in the saddle. Any other time, she'd call herself stupid. Everyone needs some R&R after an operation like that. Even ghosts, with all their training and cybernetics, weren't immune to fatigue. Still, this mission was too important to entrust to anyone but herself.

The mission was simple: break into one of Moebius' labs and find anything that could implicate the emperor. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done. What they needed was an intact data-core, and most of them had been destroyed when the hybrids broke from their containment. Thanks to Valerian's connections, she knew that one of them was still mostly intact. Apparently a clever technician had managed to back up the data onto a black-box before the lab was overrun. Good news, it was still working and Nova knew where it was. Bad news: it was in the middle of a hot-zone, so she'd need back-up to get there. Even worse news: the only back-up available on such short notice were the Zerg.

Her supporting force was lead by a rather vicious broodmother by the name of Sa'ti, who took particular pleasure in brutally murdering any hybrids she could get her talons on. It was actually quite scary, seeing the high ranking Zerg literally disemboweling the hybrid creatures and feeling the satisfaction in her mind. Nova wondered if everyone in the upper Zerg hierarchy had a vendetta against someone. Having seen what the Swarm is capable off, she was very glad that they were on her team for now. The ghost didn't even want to consider what would happen if _she_ ever became the target of their wrath.

With an army at her back, however, she was feeling somewhat like a fifth wheel, in spite of the opposition against her. The Zerg didn't really need her unless there was something that needed hacking. Nevertheless, she insisted that they'd let her come along. This was her job, not theirs. If something went wrong, it would be on her and no one else. Reluctantly, the broodmother let her come. A decision the ghost regretted soon after.

Nova was fast, but the Zerg were much faster. It was getting difficult just to catch up with them before they'd already wiped out the opposition and moved on. At least they were getting where they needed to be. A small consolation for the ghost's wounded pride.

The laboratories themselves were mostly underground, negating the Zerg's numerical advantage. Normally, the sensible thing to do would be to find another way in and attack from multiple directions, but this wasn't an ordinary situation. Nova needed to get inside that lab as soon as possible. Every second that Arcturus Mengsk still spent on the throne was another second he'd use to plot and scheme against the good guys. Besides, the Zerg didn't care that much about horrendous losses. Especially now that they got a new strain that could generate seemingly endless waves of little attack bugs. An interesting development, or so the ghost thought. She'd have to tell Valerian about this.

As the Zerg were busy grinding the hybrids into dust, the ghost snuck around and started wreaking havoc: Sniping a few of the larger ones, 'persuading' the weaker-willed to turn against their brethren, or tossing a couple of grenades. With the whole damn Swarm right besides her, the possibilities were endless, and success guaranteed. Then again, November Annabelle Terra always succeeded, one way or another. She would have done fine even without the Zerg. They just made it easier.

The black box itself was located in an inconspicuous storage room, far away from anything important. In fact, if it weren't for the schematics Valerian got her, even she would probably have missed it altogether. That, of course, was the entire point. Knowledge is power and as much as you'd like to preserve it, you can't allow it to fall into the wrong hands. This way, only someone with Moebius connections would be able to retrieve it. Within a minute, Nova had the device cracked open and started to download its information. Soon, she, and by extension Valerian, would have access to all the secrets of the hybrid program; all the who's, why's, and how's. Hopefully, one of them pointed to the emperor and would be enough to kick him off his throne.

Suddenly, a voice behind her said: "Did you find what you were looking for?"

In one motion, Nova grabbed her weapon and pointed it at the source of the voice. She was barely able to stop herself from pulling the trigger when she realized who it was. "Dammit, Sa'ti, you need to stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Sneak up on me like that. Honestly, I'm gonna put a bell on you if it happens again."

"Why the hostility? Have I erred on some way?" The broodmother seemed a little hurt.

"No, it's just…" Nova realized how tired she was. Tired enough to snap at someone who's done nothing but help her all day. "Look, it's been a long day. Sorry if I'm a little on edge."

"I see. If fatigue continues to be a hurdle, perhaps I could find a way to remove it…"

"Yeah, I'll pass."

"As you wish. It never ceases to puzzle me why humans would prefer to remain weak. I suspect your entire species is afflicted with a crippling fear of perfection. A few small alterations would significantly improve…"

"Why do you broodmothers even care about humans?" The ghost interrupted.

"Why not? My kind was based on a human template. You could say that I feel a connection to your people."

"Right. Just what we always wanted…" The computer beeped, indicating that the upload was complete and giving Nova an excuse to change the topic of the conversation. "Well, look at this: jargon, jargon, and more jargon. Even wanted to find out where hybrids come from? I'll give you a hint: they weren't delivered by a stork."

"I do not understand the reference, but I'm certain your explanation will prove most enlightening."

Sometimes, she forgot that she wasn't talking to a human. "Oh, never mind. Here, lots of sciency things, and lab results, all of which are, cue the drum-roll, part of a project commissioned and approved by the emperor himself. On top of that, there's… holy crap… apparently, about half the science team working on it were fully aware that they had no idea how to control the hybrids, but the project leader continued on anyway. I don't understand. He _knew_ that the project was too dangerous. There were literally dozens of people telling him that this would blow up in their faces. Why would they continue?"

"Does that truly surprise you?" Sa'ti shrugged. "In my experience, hubris is a common vice amongst humans. As is blind ambition and greed."

"Maybe, but most of us won't take risks _that_ stupid. What we have here proves that Mengsk isn't just evil, he's also an idiot."

"Or merely desperate."

"Desperate people have a habit of acting like idiots…" Nova sighed. This was way above her pay grade. "If nothing else, this proves that Mengsk isn't fit for the throne anymore."

"Then, what will become of your people? All societies need guidance and leadership, even yours." The broodmother's concern was surprising, but well-founded. Half the problems the human race faced today were the result of short-sighted thinking. They couldn't afford to make mistakes like that again.

"I know…maybe Valerian or Raynor could take over? I don't know, I'm not a politician. I just shoot things."

"At any rate, it would be wise to ensure that the next ruler is wiser than the last. If not, you may be forced to overthrow him as well."

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Still, it's out of our hands for now. We should get back, let our bosses take care of this."

"Yes, that would be wise. I am quite certain that my queen would be delighted to hear of our success."

Suddenly, Nova had this sinking feeling in her stomach. She knew that Mengsk was a danger to everyone and needed to be taken out of the picture, but she couldn't help but wonder what would happen next. This information would probably turn what little protection the emperor had against him. Would this data packet she just uploaded turn out to be Pandora's Box?


	103. Chapter 103

**Imperial Palace, Augustgrad, Korhal**

"…with shocking new evidence connecting Arcturus Mengsk to the latest alien threat, one question remains: Is the emperor still fit to rule? Decide for yourself when we come back after the commercial break."

Raynor was looking at the TV with tears in his eyes. They did it again. They managed to turn Mengsk's beloved propaganda machine against its master a second time. This time, however, there wouldn't be any second chances for the fallen emperor. With this broadcast, not even the military would support him anymore. The nearly deserted palace was evidence of that. Arcturus was finished, at long last.

The Raiders secured room after room, finding no one, barring a few civilians who surrendered immediately. He couldn't help but smile at his luck today. The moment he heard from Valerian what his ghost had found, Raynor knew the Dominion was done for and that he could finally hit the palace itself. Knowing Arcturus, he'd probably run away and try to rebuild his empire elsewhere, but with a ruined reputation and a population that now hated him, his prospects looked bleak.

Five years of work were finally paying off. Five years of pain, death, and sacrifice were bearing fruit. Was it worth it?

To the commander marching through the palace of his archenemy, there was only one answer: Yes.

The only thing keeping their victory from being complete was the fact that the star of the show was still at large. Arcturus Mengsk had escaped like a thief in the night, probably taking his most loyal followers with him. Raynor could appreciate the sense of déjà vu: something similar had happened during the Brood War. Then, however, Mengsk still had a reputation worth talking about and Raynor had a reason not to kill him. That wouldn't happen this time. This time, there wouldn't be a miraculous rescue or a mass recall to Aiur. This time, if Raynor got his hands on that man, there would be a bullet waiting for him.

The palace itself was a treasure trove of knowledge. Warfield wasn't kidding when he said that Mengsk preferred a centralized government. The building was, almost literally, the heart of the entire Dominion. Using the computers here, he had complete access to all of Mengsk's darkest secrets and ambitions. The emperor had his finger in every pie imaginable, from archeology to the hybrid project, from weapons production to food distribution. Literally nothing happened without the emperor knowing about it. Now, for once, the good guys would be the ones with the knowledge and power on their side. Raynor could appreciate the irony and wondered if Mengsk could too, wherever he was.

With a loud crash, the commander kicked open the door to the emperor's personal office. He looked at the richly decorated walls and saw a massive picture of the man himself. Putting it full of lead felt surprisingly good. Almost as good as doing the real thing. But that was for another time. Raynor sat down in Mengsk's chair, enjoying the sound of it creaking under his bulk. God, he could be so childish sometimes. Still, if you are going to erase someone from existence, one might as well start by destroying everything he owns. Yes, it was petty, but the commander felt he was entitled to that. At least for today.

With the palace firmly under his control, Raynor turned on the desk's integrated communication console and called up his allies. "Ladies and gentlemen, we did it. The palace is ours."

Valerian smiled. "Perfect. Does it contain the resources we need?"

"Looks like it. Techs are still busy, though, decrypting the whole mess. Can't say what's here until they're done. Just that Mengsk Senior played his cards close to his chest. It'll make taking over a lot easier, I'd reckon."

"And my father?" The prince asked, tentatively.

"Gone. Probably half-way across the sector by now."

"I don't think so, Jim." Kerrigan said, just a little too calmly. "Call it a gut-feeling, but I'm pretty sure he's still here on the planet. I can spare a few overlords to look for him." Raynor knew that, as a psychic, her gut-feeling was generally spot-on. He also had a good idea what would happen if she managed to get her hands on Mengsk. One didn't need the gift of prophecy to know that there would be blood.

"With all due respect, miss Kerrigan," Valerian replied. "that may not be wise. We've made a lot of progress and we can ill afford to send an army just to hunt down one man."

The Zerg queen shot the prince a vicious glare. "One, your father isn't just any 'one man'. If we don't deal with him now, it _will_ come back to bite us. Two, that man has an ego the size of a planet. It won't take an army to track him down. Three," Her expression remained locked in place, but her eyes spoke of something almost animalistic. It was frightening and wrong. "Arcturus and I have some catching up to do." The softness of her voice sent chills down Raynor's spine. "If you'll excuse me, I have a tyrant to kill." With that, she left."

"Hope your father has a testament, kid." The commander said. "We're going to be needing it soon."

"Honestly, I don't really care. We already have my father's palace and I know for a fact that he couldn't have taken everything." The prince said, still a little shaken from his encounter with a very angry Zerg queen. "I would have preferred to have my father tried for his crimes in court, but I understand if that's not an option."

"Well, I'm going after her. Keep me posted. She can't be that hard to find." Raynor wasn't sure what he was going to do, only that she'd need him. Even if she didn't, he wanted to be there. Not to stop her from doing what she must, but to make sure that Arcturus wouldn't push her over the edge in the process. She was balancing on such a fine line already, dancing between reason and insanity, cold fury and burning hatred. The old emperor had a way of getting in people's heads. He would no doubt try to do the same to Kerrigan, if only out of spite. He could make it his last act of revenge: taking what's left of her sanity and use it to destroy them both.

Raynor couldn't let that happen.

**UNN Headquarters, Augustgrad, Korhal**

After two weeks of near-continuous downpour, the rain was finally stopping. Kate Lockwell thought it was funny that the weather was the first thing on her mind. Not the war, not her own predicament, not even the fact that she just hosted a show rather ham-handedly titled 'Arcturus Mengsk, Savior or Scourge?'. Nope, it was the fact that she could go outside again. That anyone not yet infected by the water-borne diseases running around might now have a chance to get to safety before the rain continues.

Maybe Kate was a little high on adrenalin. The show she just hosted was nothing less than a complete demonization of the emperor, something that she could never have dreamed of doing before. For the first time in her career, she was able to show the whole truth. There was no propaganda machine to stop her of even slow her down. It was oddly liberating, like verbally beating up a punching back. For years, her job had felt like she was being held by a choke chain, always ready to yank her back the instant she tried to say anything that didn't glorify the emperor or vilify his enemies. She only hoped that it would last and that the next government wouldn't take this glorious new freedom away when it suited them.

Not that her show was that impressive. All she really had were the files Prince Valerian had sent her. As far as experts, her options were rather limited, considering the war. The only ones she could find were the resident computer specialist to show that the documents were real, and a local doctor to explain them in nice, simple terms for the laymen. In spite of the show's shortcomings, however, it was able to convey the most important message along: Arcturus Mengsk wasn't a leader worth serving anymore. In one way, it was the best report she had ever made.

It was a pity that she couldn't provide more, though. Having grown used to UNN having near infinite resources (even if they were there only to generate more propaganda), Kate found herself to be incredibly restricted. If only she could get more people to come on her show, like those two sentient Zerg people in charge of protecting the building. Unfortunately, getting Tai to give a proper interview was like pulling teeth since he was about as blunt as a roofing tile whenever he opened his mouth. Great for a smear-job against the Zerg, but not what she was looking for. Lilith was a lot less reserved than her friend, but anything she said was unusable, and for a good reason. Kate found out early in her career that the worst thing you can do as a reporter is betray your source's trust. Now that she thought about it, the fact that Lockwell was keeping Lilith anonymous was probably the only reason the former human was willing to talk to her at all.

Still, she wanted to know more about the Zerg. Arcturus Mengsk was quite literally old news now. In fact, she was expecting to receive a message from one of her sources claiming that the emperor is either dead or thrown in prison at any moment. She already had quite the eulogy planned for him when that would happen. However, with that out of the way, she'd have to find herself another story to sink her teeth in. Hence, the Zerg. Against her better judgment, she sat down next to Cain and tried prying some sort of conversation out of him. Information she not worth publishing is still better than no information at all.

"Miss. Lockwell."

"Mr. Cain."

"Trying to get an interview out of me? You know that's a bad idea, right?"

"Probably. I have a habit of not knowing when to stop digging, though, so I'm sure you'll forgive me. Besides, if I can't get something from you, I'll have turn elsewhere. Maybe that giant hydralisk that's always shadowing you has something interesting to say."

The former human chuckled. "Who, Larry? Trust me, he's a good guy, but he's not going to tell you anything useful. He's not nearly smart enough for that."

"I don't know. He might surprise us both."

"Please, have you heard his theories on human population dynamics? He still thinks, in spite of all the historical evidence against it, that Malthus was right. Does that sound like smart to you?" Much to Lockwell's chagrin, she couldn't tell if he was being serious. "Honestly, I'm more worried about what my queen will do if I screw this up. I'd rather not be dangled over a lava-pit again…"

"The Queen of Blades dangles her servants over lava pits?"

"Well, she used to, before she died…" Upon noticing the look of confusion on Lockwell's face, Cain continued, in an annoyed tone. "Here we go again…I'm going to assume Lilith never told you about Zerg politics, did you?"

Zerg politics…talk about an oxymoron. "No, she hasn't. We haven't talked that much, but most of it was about her old life as a human and new life as a Zerg. Oh, and you. She talked _a_ _lot_ about you."

"Did she now? Oh, dear. Anyway, the Queen of Blades. I'm going to tell you that she's really dead and that the person in charge of the Swarm now has nothing to do with her. You aren't going to believe me and demand proof. I'll tell you to look at what she's been doing the past few months and you still won't believe me. Then we'll both walk away assuming the other is a jackass." The former human sounded very, very irritated.

"I'm guessing you had this conversation before, right?" It didn't take a genius, or a reporter of her caliber, to figure that out.

"Yep. About half a dozen times by now and the result is always the same. It really stops being funny after the third time… Oh, but why should I care anyway? I've got as much in common with you humans these days as I have with the Protoss. Bunch of jerks, all of them. Seems like we're the only ones honest enough to admit it."

Kate was trying to find a proper response when Lilith appeared and sat on Cain's lap. "Hold me." She said, in a voice that sounded more like a plea than a command.

"In front of everybody?"

"Don't care. Hold me."

"Uh, okay… What happened? Did that lieutenant give you trouble again?" He asked, softly.

"No, Tai, he's… It's Sa'ti. She asked for my advice on something. Turns out that there're still survivors coming out of the woodwork all over the city and she doesn't know what to do with them. I told her to set up a refugee camp for the time being and, well, hope for the best…"

Lockwell's 'good story sense' suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. "But…that's great, isn't it? Great PR for the Zerg, not to mention the hope it'll bring to people fighting all over the planet." She wanted to hear more. Maybe she could even interview this Sa'ti person, or take a tour of one of the camps, or…

"Kate…" Lilith was visibly struggling to find the words. "Almost everyone there is infested…men, women, _children_. I just… one of the kids looked at me with those big, yellow eyes, said that his tummy hurt, and wanted me to do something about it. What am I supposed to tell him? How do you tell a child that a few weeks from now, they'll either be dead or an empty husk? It's not right. Why do we get to live and they don't, anyway? Bloody genetics. There's got to be a way to fix that, you know."

"Don't let it get too personal." Cain said, as soothingly as he could. "You're not running a refugee camp, you're running a hospice. It sucks, but you can't help these people. No one can. Maybe it's better if you let Sa'ti handle it. I'd hate to see you get hurt."

"You know I'll just take that as a challenge to try harder, right?"

"Guess, you wouldn't be you if you didn't… Poor Lilith, always trying to save the universe. Have you told our reporter friend that that's how you got stuck with us in the first place?"

"Oh, she did." Lockwell added. "Needless to say, I'll be leaving that part out of any story I end up making. The rest, though…"

"You're kicking yourself for agreeing to leaving us out of the spotlight, aren't you?" Lilith said, sounding a little worried.

"Very, very much. Don't look at me like that, I'm not going back on my word. It's just that you two are so…well, human. Perfect PR material for the Swarm. I wouldn't be surprised if you two were faking it. Wait, you aren't actually faking it, are you?"

"If she is," Cain said, grinning at the woman in his arms. "She's got me fooled too."

"Can we even lie to each other? Zerg telepathic collective and all that?" Lilith asked.

"Don't think so. Last time I tried lying to another Zerg, the Queen of Blades tried playing darts with me."

"That doesn't sound like a punishment…"

"She used me as the dart, and a hungry ultralisk as the target." Tai deadpanned.

"Okay. Forget I asked."

"She hit the bull's-eye too. The late queen had one hell of a throwing arm…"

"So, I guess you're not faking it." Kate interrupted, trying to get the two back on track. "That's good news, you know. More credence to the theory that the Zerg aren't completely evil. It makes an eventual lasting peace between our two species all the more likely after we've won the war…"

"I suppose… _if _we win the war…"

Lilith sighed. "God, Tai, are you trying to depress us all again? Maybe we should broadcast your thoughts to the hybrids and watch them all kill themselves when they realized the futility of life."

"I didn't say we _couldn't_ win the war. I just said that we haven't won yet."

"Oh, come on!" The girl yelled. "We've got an army on the ground, allies, and a hive that's about to go into overdrive. How can we _not_ win the war?"

"Well, we're up against some sort of ancient god-like whatever-the-hell-it-is. Someone who's been manipulating both us and the Protoss for millennia. You don't get to pull of something like that unless you're smart. I mean, really smart. Smarter than we are. I'd be very disappointed if the bad guys didn't pull out some trump card out of their rear ends at some point. I just hope we're ready for it if they do." As much as Lockwell hated to admit it, the guy had a point. They were winning. Since the Zerg were here, they'd yet to suffer a major defeat. Was their victory coming too easily?

Lilith sighed. "Oh, why do I even hang out with you?"

"My stunningly good looks and charming personality?"

"Right. How about you shut up and let us enjoy the moment. Just pretend to be my pillow" Lilith commanded.

"I don't think I'll make a very good one. Carapace, you know…"

"That's okay. I'm a lousy blanket, so it evens out."

Cain smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Once again, Kate Lockwell found herself wishing she could tape this…


	104. Chapter 104

**Starport, Augustgrad, Korhal**

It is often considered a sign of strength to stand tall in the face of impossible odds. To keep fighting for what you believe in, even if the chance of victory is non-existent. There is a fine line, however, between courage and outright stupidity. The last Mengsk's followers certainly leaned towards the latter.

Kerrigan's Swarm had the starport surrounded. Flyers darkened the sky above, nydus worms covered any escape routes, and the broods were slowly but surely grinding their way through the defenses. Why wouldn't they just give up? Defeat was inevitable and Arcturus Mengsk wasn't worth dying for.

Then again, most of the defenders were probably resocs and ghosts. Slaves in all but name. They probably didn't have a choice in the matter. Even if they did, it wouldn't matter. Mengsk would not leave this planet alive. His escape attempt had already been thwarted before it had fully begun. Now it was just a matter of time until the Zerg got to him.

The queen wondered if Mengsk could appreciate how history was repeating itself. What it felt like to be trapped, abandoned by the people you trusted, powerless to stop the legions of Zerg rapidly closing in on you. If Kerrigan had died there in the ruins of New Gettysburg, maybe that experience would have been punishment enough on its own. Except she didn't die there. She lived, and spent the next four years being a slave to her own body. No, Mengsk wouldn't get away so easily. Kerrigan had her sword in hand and she knew she would be using it.

A siege tank soared through the air, yanked into pack of Zerg by one of the vipers overhead. The vehicle was unceremoniously crushed under the massive weight of an ultralisk. It wouldn't be long now, Kerrigan thought. Months of anger, pain, and hatred were boiling to the surface, ready to be unleashed on the one man who made her suffer for so long. Soon. So very soon.

Zerglings covered the building like an army of murderous ants, viciously clawing their way into the structure. She could feel the fear of the men inside. She could her the screaming of the dying soldiers as they were thrown into the oncoming horde and ripped to pieces. It was dark work, but it had to be done. Mengsk could not escape.

The ultralisks finally managed to bash their way through the reinforced door. Within a heartbeat, the Swarm surged in like a tide, butchering every living thing they could see in a frenzy. Kerrigan didn't really care about the humans caught in the middle. Anyone who still worked for the emperor at this point was either criminally insane or resocced beyond help. In other words, acceptable casualties. There was only one human in this structure which shouldn't be killed outright. Mengsk was hers, and no one else's.

Within minutes, the building was secured. Ignoring the bodies around her, she marched through the its halls. She knew that the last of the emperor's guards were being cut down. When the last man fell, she immediately called her forces back. She didn't want one of them to jump him. Mengsk was hers, and no one else's.

Then, for the first time in five years, she was face-to-face with him. Arcturus Mengsk. The man she trusted. The man that saved her from the Confederacy. The man that betrayed her and made her suffer in ways the English language couldn't begin to fully describe. He didn't speak. He didn't beg, or whimper, or plead for mercy. He just looked at her with that piercing, baleful glare of his.

Kerrigan closed the distance between them, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into a wall with her blade against his neck. Still no reaction. She'd have to correct that. There were so many wonderful, agonizingly painful things she could do to him. She could flay him alive, electrocute him, slowly dissolve him in acid. The Zerg had many ways to keep him awake and alive, or even intensify the pain he'd experience. She could make him suffer for all eternity, if she wanted. The possibilities were endless. She would break him. Break him like he broke her. There was no one to stop her now.

Then why was she hesitating? Why was she holding back? Why…

_You'll be your old self before you know it._

She was a killer. She was a destroyer of things. She was that, and more. But she wasn't a murderer. She didn't kill people for her own pleasure. That was something the Queen of Blades would do. Not her. Not now, not ever. The fact that the victim was the most despicable person in the sector didn't matter. No one walks away from torture unchanged, not the victim, nor the perpetrator. It wasn't worth it. _He_ wasn't worth it.

Arcturus grunted against his restraints. She should just kill him. Shatter his mind. Rip off his head and feed it to the Zerglings hungrily looking at the spectacle. All she had to do was push just a little harder. The Zerg were expecting it. Everyone was expecting it. Once a killer, always a killer. No one had even considered that this could end any other way. Not even Jim. They would just stand by and let her take her revenge. They stayed silent because they knew that they could never stop her all-consuming rage. Because they could never stop her from taking what she deserved.

Didn't she deserve this?

Did she?

Was Kerrigan really any better than he was? Both of them had terrorized humanity for years. Both of them were responsible for the deaths of billions. She wasn't a virtuous innocent who had been wronged. This wasn't a matter of a heroine seeking justice. This was one monster taking brutal revenge on another. Is it right? Is it right to take revenge on someone who's no better than you are? Did she really deserve this, after all the suffering she's responsible for? All this time, who was the real enemy? The Dominion was never much of a threat to her, personally. Not compared to the boiling rage, the fury that was burning inside her, clouding her judgment…

_So long as you continue to be so predictable, oh Queen, I need not face you at all. You are your own worst enemy._

Killing her old instructor Rumm didn't solve anything. Neither did destroying the Confederacy. Now, here she was again, taking revenge on those who wronged her a third time and no one had tried to stop her because they feared her. Feared that she might return to her old ways and become the very evil they were fighting to destroy.

The urges inside her, this quest for vengeance, the hate…it was destroying her. It was pushing her away from the people who tried so hard and sacrificed so much to get her back. From the people that still cared about her. She couldn't turn her back on them now. Not over _him_.

But Mengsk needed to die for there to be peace…

Except he didn't. Not like this. Mengsk was already defeated. Without his empire or his supporters, what was he, really? The threat he represented, to her, the Swarm, humanity, or the galaxy as a whole, had already been removed. Any court of law worthy of the name would have him executed anyway. Even if he somehow escaped confinement, there'd be nowhere for him to go. Killing him was, quite frankly, pointless.

His death wouldn't bring back the dead. It wouldn't rewind time. It wouldn't undo four years of torment and misery. In the end, it would accomplish nothing. His death would never get her what she wanted. But then again, what did she want?

_I already got what I wanted._

A family? Her Zerg weren't perfect, but they mattered to her regardless. Jim? He jumped face-first into hell to get her back. A future? She was fighting for that right now.

She already had what she needed, in a way. Mengsk's death wouldn't add anything. The only thing it would do is deprive the human race of their chance to bring this damned tyrant to justice. All because a young woman was blindly following her own thirst for revenge…

Her grip on the man's throat was weakening. She couldn't do it. After all this time, she couldn't bring herself to kill him. She couldn't let the rage inside her win.

Kerrigan screamed, slamming the fallen emperor into the wall and breaking her sword in two. "I'm not going to kill you. I'm not going to torture you, because I _won't_ stoop down to your level, and I'm _certainly_ not going to infest you, because my Zerg did _nothing_ to deserve having _you_ unleashed on them."

"Your Zerg?" Mengsk said, gasping for air.

"_My_ Zerg. No, I'm going to call Jim and his buddies. They're going to put you in the deepest, darkest hole they can find. There, you'll watch powerlessly as everything you've worked for is torn down and everyone you've trusted turns against you. Then, when you stand in front of the firing squad, _maybe_ you'll begin to understand what you did to me!" She dropped him on the ground and walked away.

"I may be down, but I'm not out! Mark my words, Kerrigan, I've rebuild my empire before, I'll do it again." Venom and bile dripped of his every word.

"No, you won't. The galaxy hates you, almost as much as they hate me. You're not walking away from this a free man. Not when you're just as much a monster as I am."

With that, Kerrigan walked away. Away from the fallen emperor…

…and away from the past.

Raynor arrived at the starport, only to find it, almost literally, covered in Zerg. When he also saw Kerrigan walk out of it with a blank look on her face, he feared the worst. It was a mistake, letting her go in alone. He knew full well what killing did to the mind. Something this painful shouldn't be faced alone.

"Sarah! Sarah, what happened?"

Kerrigan looked at him with a glazed look in her eyes. "It's over, Jim. Third floor, end of the hall. Bring a rope. I think you'll know what to do."

He didn't really know what she meant. He wasn't sure if he wanted to. Running in, he expected to find a pile of shredded meat. What he didn't expect was to find the former emperor alive and well, if a bit roughed up. The commander couldn't help but laugh.

"Something funny, Raynor?" Mengsk said, angrily.

"Just the irony of it all." Raynor pulled a rope from his suit. "Ain't got handcuffs on me, so I guess this'll have to do. Arcturus Mengsk, you are under arrest." If Kerrigan didn't want him dead anymore, then he could deal with him too. The Hyperion's brig could always use another guest. "Been waiting for five years to say that…"

"Spare me the platitudes. You're enjoying this."

"Absolutely. Not as much as I'll enjoy testifying against you." He replied as he tied the emperor's hands together. "You had this coming a long time, Arcturus. Try not to pout."

The fallen emperor sneered. "Could have guessed that that bitch is too weak to…"

Suddenly, Raynor grabbed Mengsk by the head and slammed him into the table. "She spared you, Arcturus. She spared you so we could put you on trial. I didn't tell her to do that. She didn't _have_ to do that. Hell, I don't think anyone would have blamed her if I had to clean you up with a mop. Think about this for a second: not killing you is probably the first thing she's ever done entirely out of her own free will. Let me repeat that: she's giving up her revenge so we can have our justice. She ain't the bad guy, Mengsk. She's a better person than either of us."

"Charming little speech, but…"

"'…but you haven't seen the last of me'? You're done for, Arcturus. We've already made sure of that."

Mengsk grumbled some more empty threats before finally shutting up. Not that Raynor particularly cared. Just the mad ramblings of a fallen dictator. As fast as he could, he dropped this waste of space of at his dropship and took off to find the person he really cared about.

Kerrigan walked until her legs shook too much to carry her weight. Did she do the right thing? Did it even matter if Mengsk died at the hands of an executioner instead of hers?

She collapsed on a sidewalk and took off her gloves. The flesh underneath was gone, completely covered by a clawed, organic gauntlet. She removed the wire that, throughout all the fighting, had held her 'hair' together in a pony-tail, letting the unnatural strands fall across her shoulders. Kerrigan wasn't human anymore. She never would be again. Somehow, that realization didn't seem to hurt as much as it used to. But still…she was fighting to hold back her tears. Too much was uncertain. Too many emotions were burning inside her. Too much just plain hurt…

"Sarah…" Raynor had suddenly appeared right next to her. "Hey, it's okay. I gotcha."

"I couldn't do it, Jim. I'm no better than he is. There's too much anger in me. I can't fight it…I don't…" Her words just blabbered out.

Raynor gently grabbed her clawed hand and said: "Yes, you can, honey. You already did." She could feel his emotions washing over her. Satisfaction, love, and…he was proud. Proud of her…

Kerrigan leaned on his shoulder and wept. All the stress, pain, and misery of the past few months was washing away. Human or Zerg, good or evil, hero or villain…there were so many things still uncertain.

One thing, however, was not.

She was her body's plaything no longer.

**The End.**

_A/N It is finished._

_By all that's holy, it's done._

_More than 18 months of my life has gone into this. I don't think I've ever spent this much time on anything, ever. Not sure if I should be proud of that…_

_Anyway, as you may have noticed, the story itself is far from over. My 'Legacy of the Void' wannabe is going to be coming at some point. Not sure when, but it will eventually. Unless something horrible happens to me. But let's not think about that. For now, I think I've earned a break._

_Originally, this story was written as a sort of stress reliever when Blizzard started releasing trailers for HotS but not release dates. Instead of taking it to the internets and rage for a bit, I decided to do something constructive and put my own version on paper to see how close I would get. I'll be putting my findings in another chapter, along with a proper epilogue, when I'm done playing through the game a few times, so if you want to see me praise it like the second coming or flame it into the ground, stay tuned. If not, there's a button at the top of your page that takes you to the StarCraft fanfiction archive. _

_After I'm done actually playing the goddamn game for a change, well, I'll start working on the sequel. Until then…_


	105. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

So, you all wanted a review/comparison from me? Actually, I wanted to do it for myself, but I'm going to pretend that you're all begging for it, because that'll make me feel slightly less pretentious. Anyway, there's no actual story here, so this is just here for your interest and mine. Also, **spoilers, ahoy!** So, without further ado, I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off at this game, I'm pissed off at Blizzard for making this game as it is, I'm pissed off at my Process Engineering professor for various unrelated reasons, but above all, I'm pissed off at myself for not seeing the signs earlier and getting so damn hyped up.

**Overall Plot**

Does the above give you the impression that I hate Heart of the Swarm? Well, you'd be wrong. It's an awesome game and I will be playing it a lot more for weeks to come. To be honest, there are so many things I absolutely love about this game, any criticism I have for it just kind of fades. I love how it actually makes me feel like I'm commanding the freakin' Swarm (with a capital S). How each mission is timed or has a timed achievement, egging me on to expand, consume, adapt, and assimilate. How your units rapidly turn into an endless tide of death and destruction, exactly as the Zerg were intended. I love the cinematic cutscenes and how they genuinely make me empathize with some of the characters. Case in point, 'Believe in me'. I could really feel the pain that both Raynor and Kerrigan must have felt, and I'm almost certain most of you did so as well. Hell, any time Raynor opens his mouth in a cutscene, the feels come out. Oh, and then there's Abathur, whose every line is pure, unmitigated awesome in a way that I could never hope to match.

However, even as I was playing through the game, there was a niggling little feeling in the back of my mind. Something that I couldn't shake until it blossomed into a damning piece of criticism when I started thinking about it after I finished the game. StarCraft is showing signs of Indigo Prophecy Syndrome. In a nutshell, Indigo Prophecy Syndrome occurs when writers try to make a game or story more epic by upping the stakes to stupidly ridiculous levels, stretching or outright breaking the established mythology by adding a supernatural element, and introducing strange and often ancient conspiracies into the plotline, usually in the form of prophecies. As a result, subtlety goes out the window and the story seems to abandon everything that made it great in the first place in order to make room for flashy, bombastic set-pieces. Yes, I stole this term from Yahtzee but it is the only word that seems to completely describe what is happening here. Anyway, allow me to expand:

1. Upping the stakes. What was at stake in the original SC or Brood War? People's lives, mainly. The antagonists were 'merely' a conquering horde in the former or a power-hungry schemer in the latter. Now, Blizzard is saying that the main antagonist is out to destroy EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, FOREVER, just to make sure that he's actually a bigger threat than the Overmind ever was. He's not just trying to kill everything, he wants to devour all the essence (whatever that's supposed to be) in the universe so that nothing can change or exist. Is this really necessary? To me, it feels so comically over the top that it's more at home in a silly cartoon than in a game franchise that actually takes itself a little seriously. What's wrong with keeping the stakes nice and personal? You don't need to obliterate all creation just to convince us that the monster of the week is a credible threat. Think about it: which StarCraft villain actually wanted to annihilate everything? They were always motivated by something far less grandiose like greed (Mengsk), pride (Aldaris), or a lust for power (Queen of Blades). None of them wanted to commit omnicide, but are still better villains because the traits that make them the bad guys are things we can relate to. Their failings are so like our own, we realize that we might end up making the same decisions. This makes us actually WANT to oppose them. Amon, on the other hand is just completely unrelatable. He's not a person, but a force. Something that's just sort of there to give the other characters a reason to fight like a giant eldritch punching bag of doom. Had this game been created by a lesser developer, I might have considered that to be enough. This, however, is Blizzard. We all know they can do better. Hell, they HAVE done better. Just look at Brood War.  
>Bigger isn't always better. Ever heard the saying: 'one death is a tragedy, a million deaths a statistic'? The closer we are to someone, the more we feel for that person when they come to harm. It is much easier to empathize with a small-scale down-to-earth motive, like love or revenge, than with things like the annihilation of everything. You have to make us care about what we're trying to save, and right now, I just can't really give a damn about the entire Koprulu sector because there isn't much of a personal connection.<p>

2. Stretching established mythology. The Xel'Naga were never literal gods before. Sure, the Protoss worshipped them like gods, but they weren't ACTUAL gods. How could they be: the early Zerg Swarm was able to wipe them out to the last. If they were as powerful as Amon (i.e. capable of ripping planets apart) how could the early Zerg have killed them? If Amon was somehow unique, or the greatest of them all, why would he bother using a middleman? If he wouldn't kill them because it was against some sort of ancient, unbreakable law (like Dreadlords killing each other in WarCraft), why would using a proxy be okay? Every answer to these questions I can think of only sound like poor excuses or raises more questions.  
>Why am I hammering so much on the god issue? Well, the problem with having a god as an antagonist and mortals as protagonists is that gods can't be defeated the way a mortal can. Gods, by definition, are so beyond mortals that the only way to defeat them is either to find and destroy the source of their power or find something that will even the odds, like a magic sword or a special spawning pool that will endow a worthy user with god-like powers. I'm very concerned that, by introducing gods to StarCraft, Blizzard has turned the overall story into a scavenger hunt for the ancient, magical doodad that will save the day rather than the game of thrones that it used to be.<br>This is not just in Heart of the Swarm, however. Ghosts, for example, have changed overtime. At first, they were just highly-trained assassins who happened to be able to read minds. Now, if the varying books and comics featuring them are to be believed, some of them also have X-men like superpowers as well. While there's nothing inherently wrong with this, it does clash with the overall feel of the franchise and the Terrans in particular. In StarCraft, the humans are supposed to be the underdogs. They are supposed to be weaker than everyone else but make up for this with cunning and determination. They're the A-team, not the Fantastic Four. Why this change? I don't know, maybe Blizzard thought it would be cool. Consider this, though: Does Raynor succeed because he 'harnessed the power within', or because he was smarter, more cunning, and more determined than everyone else? Which is a better story: The Queen of Blades's rise to power because of her own brilliance (Brood War) or Kerrigan becoming the Primal Queen of Blades because she happened to have the right genes or essence to survive the transformation (Heart of the Swarm)?  
>The Zerg have been wandering the stars for thousands of years using the same warp 'technology' that Kerrigan is using now. How can she cross the distance from the Koprulu sector to Zerus (the Zerg homeworld), conquer it, and be back in a month? The timeline doesn't seem to fit, unless Blizzard is going to cook up some contrived reason why the Overmind was taking his damn time.<br>Oh, and I've already discussed the matter of people coming back from the dead. I'm not going to discuss that here again.  
>When I wrote my story, I went through great lengths to try and ensure that it wouldn't clash with the established canon. Even if it did, I made sure that the actual 'feel' of the franchise wasn't changed or compromised. You know why? Because retcons are dangerous. Every time you put one in your story, you're breaking the immersion of the reader (or player). They confuse people and fracture the plot when it starts to contradict its own reality. A plot is only compelling if the audience can lose themselves into the story and nothing can suck you back into reality than mentally taking a step back and asking yourself if things are still making sense. If you are going to resort to retcons or contrivances, you have to make sure that it is absolutely necessary and provably improves the story. Though it feels like the epitome of arrogance to say so, I could create a compelling story without deviating from the canon. ME. I'm a student in his early twenties with no formal education or experience in literature. Blizzard's story department is staffed by dozens of highly capable and experienced people that have already produced incredible games in the past. If I didn't need retcons to tell a good story, why do they?<p>

3. Introduction of ancient conspiracies. The problem with prophecies as a plot device in general is that it takes the aspect of choice away from the characters. It essentially turns the story into a cosmic chess-match between unseen gods and the characters into pawns in their game. In other words, as long as the protagonists does (or doesn't) do what prophecy tells them too, they'll be fine. If they deviate from the cosmic plan (like, say, Raynor letting Tychus take the shot or Kerrigan deciding NOT to betray the memory of the man she loves by turning herself Zerg again), everybody dies. This may be good storytelling in some franchises, but not in StarCraft. Not in a franchise where ambition and determination are rewarded and where people are rewarded for abandoning the established convention to do what they believe is right, rather than what some higher power tells them too (see Tassadar and Raynor). In good storytelling, the protagonists drive the plot forward. A character shouldn't need permission from the great plot-device-ium wizard in the sky to actually get things done. While it is true that the characters usually have their own reasons for doing the things they do, I can't ignore the fact that the entire universe seems to be intent on rail-roading them into performing the right (read: prophecy-approved) actions. Worst of all, however, the idea of prophecy effectively gives all the characters a moral get-out-of-jail free card. Kerrigan isn't evil because she killed millions. Oh, no, that was all meant to be. All part of the great magic plan devised by the Xel'Naga/Overmind/insert-name-of-bloody-deity-here to save the day. Sometimes, I wonder if Zeratul is the only one doing something productive around here, simply by trying to uncover what the big cosmic plan actually is, and that everyone else are just pawns in his game; a giant scavenger hunt with the lives and souls of everyone hanging in the balance.

To me, Heart of the Swarm overall plot feels somewhat contrived, like Blizzard felt a burning desire to crow-bar the whole prophecy malarkey in at any cost because it worked so well elsewhere. A waste, if you ask me. Once upon a time, there was intrigue and plot twists that you didn't see coming a mile away. Now, though… StarCraft isn't a fantasy game. The ideas of gods, souls, and the idea that there's more out there than the lives of the characters just doesn't have a place here, in my opinion. And that's the worst part of all this. All of my yammering is nothing more than my own, personal opinion. Blizzard isn't wrong the way, say, Bioware was with the ending to Mass Effect 3. It's more like the Homeworld series. They haven't forgotten their own franchise, they're just slowly moving away from the things that made the original so great. The introduction of fantasy elements isn't against some kind of rule, it's just different. Different in a way I happen to dislike. I know that many of you who are reading this are probably thinking that I'm just an pretentious child that's whining about his precious franchise not going EXACTLY the way he wanted to, and you wouldn't be entirely wrong. Blizzard didn't screw the pooch, they just did something unexpected and I'll just have to live with it. Guess that if I wanted to see a Heart of the Swarm story exactly to my liking, I should probably write it myself…

Oh, wait, I already did.

**Kerrigan**

Kerrigan, protagonist of both our stories. It's funny how a single, relatively small thing can have such wide-ranging effects on a person. In this case, whether Raynor 'dies'. In Heart of the Swarm, she, predictably, she goes on a Kill-Bill style roaring rampage of revenge after his supposed death. Me, I wanted something something a little less depressing. Quite frankly, that's how the story is supposed to end. After all the shit she's been through, Kerrigan deserves to have at least one thing go somewhat right.  
>When I started writing this, I had a problem. I had to find a way to get Kerrigan and the Zerg back together. In order to do that, I had to get rid of Raynor, at least for a while. Something had to happen to separate the two and force Kerrigan into a position where she HAD to take control of the Zerg, in spite of her own inevitable disgust for the creatures. I decided to have Raynor merely captured, because I felt that if Kerrigan actually thought he was dead, she'd lose it completely and I wanted a slightly happier ending. HotS shows us that that prediction was completely on the money. Kerrigan isn't just pushed of the edge, she jumps off of it. She doesn't just let go of her humanity, she throws it into the sun with a stake driven through its heart. What bothers me, though, is how quickly and easily she abandons literally EVERYTHING just to have her revenge. She never even tries to honor Jim's memory by staying true to his ideals or try to join the Raiders to stop Mengsk the way he would have wanted (i.e. in a way other than rampaging across the Dominion, killing everything in her path). Nope, she heads to the Zerg, becomes Queen of Blades again, and throws her humanity of a bridge, thus undoing everything you did in Wings of Liberty. 'But,' cry the munchkins 'Kerrigan is feeling genuine regret for some of her actions.' Maybe she does, but she never actually does anything with it. Telling everyone that you feel like a monster rings hollow if you order your broodmothers to invade Terran planets (and inevitably butcher millions in the process) a few moments later. Letting a few dropships full of wounded escape on Char is hardly a good deed when you remember that she just murdered thousands of their buddies (including General Warfield, R.I.P.) because they happen to be on the same planet as your brood. Couldn't she, I don't know, leave Char to the bloody Dominion and settle somewhere else? It's not like there's a shortage of volcanic death-worlds to chose from. Oh, but Zerg don't run from their enemies. WHY NOT? The Zerg are pragmatists and a strategic withdrawal is sound military practice when the Swarm is still very weak and divided. Why wouldn't Kerrigan leave Char to the Dominion? Is she afraid that Zagara will commit seppuku or something? Did the Zerg suddenly develop a code of honor? Anyway, by the time the final mission comes around (and where she lets Valerian talk her into not murdering civilians), I can't really decide whether her decision to spare the innocent is due to a genuine shred of compassion or because she's worried that the Raiders will interfere if she doesn't. It's not often that I meet a protagonist whom I so utterly despise as this one. I don't mind playing the villain every now and then, but their character needs to involve things other than bloody revenge and furious anger.<p>

It also doesn't help that Blizzard seems to try to paint her as a sort of anti-hero. The thing is, she's never really punished for her crimes. In spite of everything Kerrigan has done since reclaiming the mantle of Queen of Blades, Raynor still seems to love her when he sees that there's still 'good' in her after she decides to murder half of Augustgrad instead of all of it. This just doesn't make any sense. Kerrigan isn't a hero. She murders an entire Protoss science expedition, rather than reclaiming her Nafash's brood and leaving. She murders Warfield and his men (the same people you fought besides in Wings of Liberty, by the way), whose only crime is trying to stop a madwoman and her army of ravenous giant insects from destroying their people. She betrays Raynor by undoing everything he fought so hard to achieve and picking up where the old Queen of Blades left off. Kerrigan is a villain, pure and simple. Hell, she's worse than the Queen of Blades. At least the Queen of Blades never pretended to be righteous. But, hey, apparently the best way to atone for murdering millions is to murder millions more. Just so long as the bad guy dies at the end…

In my opinion, Raynor should have rejected her in the end. He should have simply said: "You know, darlin', I loved you once, but I can't do that anymore. Mengsk hurt you, hurt all of us, but that don't justify killing millions just to get to him." While Kerrigan's actions in Heart of the Swarm are understandable to an extent (what would you do if the only thing in the universe worth living for is taken from you?), he should still have given her the boot after everything she did to him. Let's face it: the guy grieved for four years, leads a near-suicidal invasion into hell itself and kills his best friend all to save her life, and this is how she repays him? But, no, like an idiot he says it's been a pleasure saving her ass a second time, because it all worked out so well the first. This, children, is what they call true love, also known as brain damage.

Have I mentioned that this game has me pissed?

Anyway, what I find more damning on Blizzard's part is the fact that Kerrigan feels very shallow as a character. Apart from the whole revenge thing, there's just not much to her. She doesn't seem to evolve much as a character, which is ironic, considering the setting. It's just 'Rawr Kerrigan Smash!' from start to finish. There's virtually no guilt (at least not in her actions), there's no fear off whether or not she can still command the Swarm, and her views on life, the universe, and everything stay mostly stagnant throughout the game. She just instantly slips into the Zerg mindset after Raynor gets put on a bus and stays there forever. She never seems to really question if what she's doing is really the right thing, and when others do she just brushes them off or orders them to shut up. Blizzard should have added a scene where Kerrigan bursts into tears, having finally realized the full extent of her own evils, but nope, she gets the happy ending. In my opinion, that's just not how the world is supposed to work. Someone who's this unsympathetic shouldn't get to be portrayed as a hero. The most jarring thing of all, however, is that Mengsk wanted Kerrigan dead and, from where I stand, succeeded: the good, honorable ghost we knew as Sarah Kerrigan is gone forever, killed by her own hand. Arcturus got his revenge in the end, even though it cost him his life. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the biggest irony of them all. If only I knew if this was intentional. You know, if anyone reading this is going to Blizzcon this year, please ask them. I really, really want to know.

You know what would have made Kerrigan a hero? If she expanded her Swarm without sacrificing countless Terran worlds. If she fought the evil within her, instead of letting it consume her. If she could get her revenge without destroying herself in the process. That was the idea behind Her Body's Plaything. Did she have the strength to hold on to her own identity, or would the quest for revenge consume it? Did I succeed in getting this point across? Well, that's for you, the audience, to judge.

Blizzard should have added more interactions with other characters. While Kerrigan has an influence on the way other characters (Zagara in particular) think, no one seems to be capable of influencing her. Lassara, for example, has only two conversations with her, and Kerrigan actually has the gall to pull the 'you're no better than I am' card on her. Because a Protoss civilian is, naturally, as evil as a woman who gleefully murdered billions…  
>Speaking of Lassara, Blizzard shouldn't have killed the Protoss prisoner off so quickly, or at least should have given us a choice on the matter (something that's conspicuously absent from this game, along with a 'secret mission'). For example, they could have let us kill Lassara before we leave Kaldir (thus triggering the 'Enemy Within' mission), or given us the option to let her stay under the guise of research (and maybe trigger another, harder mission later in the game where a Protoss fleet tracks you down). This would give Kerrigan an opportunity to hear Lassara out, for Lassara to hear Kerrigan out, and would allow the Protoss to fill a similar position to Hanson in WoL, i.e. the angel on the main character's shoulder.<p>

I think that part of the problem is that Kerrigan is a much more complex character than Raynor is. Let's review the first in-game cutscene in Wings of Liberty: we have Raynor sitting at a bar, looking depressed. He gazes at an old picture of the woman he loves while overhearing pro-Dominion propaganda. Then, when Mengsk starts giving his speech, he gets angry and shoots the screen. In about 2 minutes, we learn everything we need to know about Raynor's motivations: he's a bitter, lovesick, rebel trying and failing to bring down an unspeakably powerful government that has wronged him personally. Nice and simple. One guy being angry at another guy over a girl. We can empathize with this. Kerrigan, on the other hand, is much more complex. Remember that this is a woman who has been tortured and violated all her life, has jumped species TWICE, and has seen more pain, death, and agony than any human being in history. In Heart of the Swarm, she is (or at least should be) suffering from a torrent of emotions that both she and the audience can barely comprehend: guilt, hate, love, anger, pain, fear, etc. at and over many different people at once, often simultaneously. You cannot adequately explain this in one cutscene the way Raynor's motivations could. These ideas are too complicated and too alien for an ordinary person (i.e. your entire audience) to understand with so little background. In order to fully explain Kerrigan's actions and motivations, Blizzard should have made the game longer. Not necessarily more missions, but more things in-between that explain to us what the character is feeling and why.

**Context**

Do you remember the Protoss mini-campaign and the UNN broadcasts? Now, I can say a lot of bad things about them (in fact, I have, in the case of the former), but they do provide you with something that the story desperately needed: context. A sense of what was going on outside the battlefield or the Hyperion. Because of the broadcasts, we don't just have to take Raynor's word for it that Mengsk is an evil despot; we can actually see it happening along with the effects of our actions on Terran life. We can see the fruits of our labor when Mengsk's empire starts to fall apart. Because of the mini-campaign, we know that there's more going on in the StarCraft universe than the Raiders' revolution. In Heart of the Swarm, however, both are missing, and it shows. Arcturus Mengsk and Dr. Narud are probably the game's main antagonists as well as accomplished schemers. However, because we only get to see the Zerg's perspective (barring one really weird mission where you control the Hyperion), we don't actually get to see that. With just the game to go on, Mengsk seems to turn into a cartoon-villain, just sitting on his throne, waiting for Kerrigan to come to him so that he can catch her in his deathtrap (which, in true cartoon tradition, has a glaringly obvious and easily exploitable flaw which also ends up being his doom). Narud is even worse. All he seems to do is ham at you for two missions before going super-saiyan and starting a match of laser-beam tug-of-war. After losing the match, Narud escapes into the mysterious temple and dies fighting Kerrigan because…Hey, why does he have to die here? The guy was able to trick Mengsk senior (who would have never allowed the hybrids to be created if he knew what their true purpose was), Raynor, Valerian, and just about everyone who's ever dealt with Moebius the past few years, why can't he escape? Why won't he escape? All he needed was a trap-door and a flash-bang grenade, things that he'd have easy access to in his position. Narud doesn't have to die, and there are all sorts of dastardly things he could do for his master if he didn't. So why did he die? Let Kerrigan believe the threat died with him? Why tell her Amon's coming then? My point: without more information, it looks like Mengsk (the reincarnation of Machiavelli) has been turned into a cartoon character and Narud (the StarCraft universe's greatest enigma) into a psychotic death-cultist. I, for one, cannot believe that this was Blizzard's intention. They are too good at their jobs to screw up this badly. So: what have they been doing? What's going on?

Now, I know that there's only so much story you can cram into a game. I know that I had to devote at least half of Her Body's Plaything to non-Zerg characters just to keep the above from happening. I also know that there are some things that you can't do in a game that you can do in a book (like show people's thoughts, plans, hopes, and dreams). My recommendation: a tie-in novel describing what Mengsk, Narud, the Raiders, and possibly even the Protoss are doing while Kerrigan is off trying to find new ways to make Raynor spin in his grave. I sincerely hope that someone at Blizzard is planning this, because the story NEEDS it, badly. Without that added perspective, there's a hole in the story that can't possibly be overlooked.

Of course, it's easy to point out a problem without providing a solution. How would I have fixed this issue within the confines of the game itself? Do you remember Raynor's dropship that Kerrigan used to get to the leviathan in the first place? Last time I checked, it's there for the rest of the game. Why not add a button somewhere so that we can go visit it? That way, we can watch the TV and get a sense of what's going on in the wider world. As an added bonus, it offers us a mental panic room; a little Zerg-free zone for Kerrigan where she could keep some things (like mementos from the planets you visited or her old gun) and reflect on her actions. It couldn't have taken that much effort and would have given us some much-needed insights.

**Infested Humans**

When I started this story, one of the things I wanted to explore was the effect of infestation on the human mind. What would your life be like, if something like that happened to you? How would your personality be affected by this change in your biology? I was really hoping to see some of that in Heart of the Swarm. Unfortunately, Blizzard just sort of glossed over it all. There is a brief moment in the third mission and the 'Transmission' cutscene where Kerrigan outright admits that it's affecting her, but other than that, it is sort of overshadowed by the whole revenge thing. It's like trying to play a flute during a metal concert: no matter how epic a fluteplayer you are, no one's going to listen to you because they can't hear you when the guys besides you are blowing the roof of the place. The thing is: infestation isn't really a part of the story if you could replace the whole thing with drugs, training, or a magical weapon and still get the same overall plot. Stukov is mentioned, but if Narud's experiments had involved cybernetics rather than Zerg hybridization his plot-line would have been little different. All in all, the emotions of the sentient infested in Heart of the Swarm just seems so human. Stukov doesn't seem to be torn between a 'human' side and a 'Zerg' side fighting for control at all and Kerrigan abandons the whole thing after finding out that Raynor had 'died'.

Of course, I can't really blame Blizzard for not putting as much detail into this matter as I have, given that the conflict mentioned above is practically the entire character arc for several of my characters, including the protagonist. Maybe I should talk a little about how I handled it: I am of the opinion that you can only pile up so much shit on a single character. Just like in real life, a person can only carry so much before they collapse. Already at the start of my story, Kerrigan is beginning to feel the Zerg influence on her mind, but has no idea what it will do to her. Nor does she know what it might cost her if she gives in to said influence. What she needs is a crystal ball for her psyche: someone who's already been through at least some of the things she's experiencing now. Someone who can act as an example for her, even if it is an example of what not to do.

Enter Tiberias Cain. He is a clear example of a character that seems to have grown on his own accord. Originally, I had intended him to stay on the side-line, cracking wise and occasionally doing something stupidly badass for the heck of it. Basically, he was Kerrigan's version of Tychus Findlay (who is totally awesome and if you think otherwise, you're wrong). Later, however, I got the idea of him trying to mentor Kerrigan, and realized that he was already doing that, just by existing. I realized that the only kind of person to wade into battle without any real fear of his life is someone with nothing to lose. Someone who's got nothing worth living for anymore and (at least on some level) considers death to be a release. All his jokes and comments are part of a façade, a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to fill up the hole in his soul that used to contain his humanity. Just by being there, he shows Kerrigan what she could become if she ever let go of that tiny spark of her old self, the part that can still be called Sarah Kerrigan with a straight face. It's a bit melodramatic, I know, but I'm a damn amateur here. It's the first time I've tried to add depth to a character. Personally, the greatest writers in history didn't leave their most important plot points out in the open. They would leave enough hints to get people to think and find it for themselves. Did I succeed? I'll leave that for you to judge.

I could go into further detail, of course, but I really don't want to. The sequel will contain Zerg (just like this story had a lot of Terrans running around) and many of the character arcs aren't quite done yet and will involve this theme. Nobody likes spoilers, of course, so I won't tell you what I have in store for Lilith and Kate Lockwell. I did want to leave you with something to think about, though. I like finding additional layers in a story. It makes me feel like a highly sophisticated critic when I find them. So I tried putting them in this story, and will continue to do so in the next.

**Conclusion**

I've been thinking, writing, and analyzing for nearly a month now, and I think I've done enough. Heart of the Swarm could have been better and I think I've made that clear. Even now, I can already find a dozen little nitpicks to hammer down that I hadn't mentioned yet, but I'd only come across as a whiner if I kept yammering. Time to wrap this up and move on.

In general, there are no right or wrong creative choice. It's all a matter of opinion. Some of you might agree with what I've said. Others will think I'm talking out of my ass. Others might think that StarCraft is supposed to be a bit cheesy and that I'm completely missing the point. You'd be right regardless. The thing is, Heart of the Swarm pisses me off because there's something wrong about it, but not something I can point out objectively. As a student in the field of Molecular Biology, I work in a world where if two people have conflicting opinions, at least one of them is always wrong. Outside of the exact sciences, however, things are rarely that simple, which is sometimes difficult for me to swallow.  
>Still, there is something wrong with this game. Then again, that's inevitable. Wings of Liberty had many flaws too. However, I didn't notice the first game's flaws until after I seriously began analyzing it. In Heart of the Swarm, on the other hand, I never lost the feeling that there was something missing. I felt like I was waiting for the game to explain itself. When it finished, my first thought wasn't 'That was awesome, what a ride!', it was 'That's it? But what about…'. Maybe it's me. Maybe I'm more aware of these sort of things now that I've read and written so much over the past two years. However, I think the root of the problem is that Blizzard tried to cram too much story into a single game and were forced to seriously cut corners just to fit it all in. It's funny, really: they split StarCraft II into three parts to make room for everything, and they still ended up running out of game for their story. The StarCraft universe is just too damn big, even for them. That doesn't excuse the oversimplification of Kerrigan's condition, though, or the fact that the villains have been turned into cardboard cut-outs, or the whole primal Zerg, Amon, essence, prophecy nonsense that's out of place at best, a downright retcon at worst. The game we got feels like it made room for the parts the story didn't need by removing the things that it did.<p>

Now, I know that I am, in a way, comparing apples and oranges here. I know that writing a book (which is essentially what I've done, even if Her Body's plaything will never be put on paper) is very different from making a game and that some things work in one medium but not in the other. For example, there's no way of letting us see what a character is thinking in a visual medium. However, skilled game designers can circumvent this, and the people at Blizzard are nothing if not skilled.

As it stands, I'm still pissed. I'm pissed because all I have right now is a really good game, instead of a work of art. When I look at Heart of the Swarm, I see something that could have been incredible, if only they didn't make this and that design choice, if only the dialogue was slightly less heavy-handed, if only they didn't add retcon X. I see something that just doesn't live up to its potential. It's not a bad game, it's just shallower than I thought it would be. I suppose that a large part of the problem is the ridiculously high standards that I had set for it. I guess that disappointment was inevitable when you analyzed the franchise as much as I have the past two years. No matter what Blizzard had done, I would have found a fault somewhere. But then again, am I really at fault for setting an extreme standard? Blizzard isn't some no-name company run by three guys out of a broom-closet. This is Blizzard Freaking Entertainment for god's sake. If there's any game-company on the planet capable of creating art, it's these people. They've done it in the past, after all. Is it really that much to expect lightning to strike twice? And StarCraft? It's practically South Korea's national sport nowadays. Even if Heart of the Swarm featured nothing but Kerrigan getting hammered and singing drunken karaoke in the Hyperion's cantina, it'd still sell like crazy. Blizzard doesn't have to worry about making ends meet anymore, because Starcraft will be worth the investment regardless. If you have an IP that simply cannot fail, why not go the extra mile and turn the story into something that won't be forgotten within a year?

Ugh.

Okay, I'm out of bile now.

Enough whining. I'm tired, and I'm not helping anyone, least of all myself, by yammering about a really good game falling short of the stupidly high bar I've set for it.

As I've said before, Her Body's Plaything will get a sequel. I'm not sure when I'll start uploading chapters or what the story will be called, but you'll find it in the StarCraft page soon enough. As for its content, it'll pick up where this story left off. It will NOT feature Heart of the Swarm content, or anything released after Wings of Liberty. I might steal a few good lines or features (Okay, probably a lot of good lines and features, but what is fanfiction other than literary kleptomania?), but the actual plot will be my own. I've put far too much effort into this to abandon it now.

This will be the last update for this story featuring any actual content. Over the next few weeks, I may reread parts of it (if only to find out where Chekov hid all his damn guns again) and I may correct some of the chapters if the spelling is really bad (and, god help me, it was). I don't think that this website shows it if you change an existing chapter (as opposed to adding a new one), but just in case it does, know that there won't be any new content, just an update of existing material.

I would like to thank everyone who's reviewed this story or who may do so in the future. Without you lot, I would probably have gotten bored and stopped writing months ago. In particular, I'd like to thank Ragnarok666 who has reviewed EVERY. SINGLE. CHAPTER, usually within hours of it being published. Not only that, he has always been happy to let me bounce ideas off of him, was one of the few reviewers to be consistently and genuinely critical of the story (as much as I love praise, I know I'm not perfect, and I'm not going to improve unless people point out where I went wrong), and was always the first to tell me if I got things wrong lore-wise. You're amazing. He has a story of his own called 'Aftermath and Revelations' and I'm ordering you (yes, you, the people reading this) to check it out.

Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm not perfect but I'm always open to constructive criticism. Therefore, before I leave, I would like to ask a bunch of questions to you all, if you don't mind. I'd really appreciate an answer so that the next story might be even better than this one.

How do I fare, technically speaking? Is my spelling up to snuff? How about my grammar?  
>Are there any words and phrases that I use constantly andor too much?  
>Am I using words the wrong way?<br>Does my writing feel boring or monotonous? If so, can you point out where and how I could improve?  
>Do my characters feel like living, breathing people, with well-rounded personalities where applicable?<br>Do any of the characters feel superfluous? Is there anyone that desperately needs to die horribly (apart from the antagonists, of course. And Izsha. God, I hate her so much now. She never made much sense to me, being the infested Terran/adjutant thing that she is, but now Blizzard gave her the most annoying voice EVER too!).  
>Do my canonical characters feel the way they should? (i.e. true to what they are in the canon)<br>Are my original characters (OC's) properly fleshed out? Do they ever take up more screentime than they deserve? Do they feel like Mary Sues (this is really important to me, look up 'Mary Sue' on if you don't know what the term means)?  
>Do my characters interact and develop in a way that is natural for them?<br>Do my human characters feel human enough? Do my inhuman characters feel alien enough?  
>How do I fare in terms of originality? Do the people, places, and things feel like I've stolen them from somewhere (not to say that I did, apart from Blizzard themselves, of course)?<br>Is the story of the appropriate length? Should I have left things out, or do you think that there are things missing (apart from things that will happen in the sequel, of course)?  
>Is the overall plot following logical? Is it well paced?<br>Does this story feel, at any point, overtly sexist, racist, or ideologically biased towards anyone (real-life groups that is)?

So, until the next story comes along…

DISCLAIMER: StarCraft and all related people, places, and things are property of Blizzard Entertainment. No copyright infringement intended. All rights reserved.


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